


Digimon Adventure 03

by Digimaniac



Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Beta Read, Data as blood, Dub Terms, Fan Service, Mild Gore, Not Epilogue Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags omitted for spoilers, episodic, maybe not actually Teen and Up, non-human violence, tying up loose ends
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:22:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 25,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28460850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Digimaniac/pseuds/Digimaniac
Summary: What if instead of Digimon Adventure: Tri we got another Digimon Adventure: 02 like sequel, with a new cast of characters?Ferris, Mila, Ruby, and Kalev, are chosen to be the new Digidestined, along with Cody. Inexperienced and afraid, they must deal with a threat from another universe. Powers of the multiverse make their presence known to support them. All the while a threat from the Digital World’s ancient past works against themAs have likely gathered from the title I am ignoring Tri for this story, I have nothing against Tri, in fact I think I enjoy it more than most. I am only doing so so that I can tell my own story, one that couldn’t be told if Tri was taken into consideration. I will also only be loosely sticking to the 02 epilogue, knowing that certain characters survive takes away from the suspense of stories, and also it’s just hard to explain why our new characters aren’t there.You may have noticed the “our” in the last paragraph, that is because while I am the writer I have consulted with other friends of mine who are Digimon fans (and some who aren't) to help with character concept and design. One in particular has been very helpful, you know who you are, and thank you.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	1. The Battle of the Dark Ocean

**The Battle of the Dark Ocean**

_ This is all my fault. _

Kari sat in TK’s room with Gatomon on her lap and the rest of the second generation of Digidestined in the room. They were arguing.

“-had no right to keep this from me!” Davis was standing leaning down towards TK, who was still sitting with Patamon on his head. He looked defensive, but he didn’t do anything.

“Keep it from you, Davis?” Yolei cut in, she had been the first to stand up several minutes earlier, “They didn’t tell any of us about this.”

The ‘this’ they were referring to were the multiple occasions on which Kari was almost pulled back into the Dark Ocean. Since MaloMyotismon was defeated, they had only increased in frequency. She thought they would stop if she just weathered them out, but they never did. Eventually, TK noticed she was acting weird, put two and two together, and made her tell him everything. In turn, she made him promise not to tell the others because she felt she had to deal with this alone. The Dark Ocean wanted her and her alone. TK kept his promise until he had to physically intervene to stop her from getting pulled in. That was an hour ago. She was exhausted.

_ I shouldn’t have even told him. _

She was only half paying attention to everything, so she was caught off guard when Yolei said “Why do you have such a hard time with TK’s name? Is it because it has more letters than you have IQ points?”

“Why don’t I hit you so hard your IQ ha-”

“Davis, Yolei, that’s enough!” Cody rarely raised his voice, but when he did, he made it count. “Whether or not Kari should or shouldn’t have told us doesn’t matter now,” he looked between the arguing Digidestined slowly, “What matters is what we do now that we do know.”

“Ken,” TK hesitantly made eye contact with him, “can you open another gate to the Dark Ocean?”

Ken himself had been quiet this whole time. Kari suspected that he was dreading this question. 

“Please don’t ask me to do this.”

“I have to.”

He put his head in his hands, “Alright.”

_ That easily? I’m doing this to them _ .

TK stepped outside of his room, “Mom?”

“Is everything alright in there?”

“Yeah, just an argument. But now we have to…” he trailed off, and instead lifted up his Digivice and pointed to it.

Mrs. Takaishi let out a sad-sounding sigh. “Alright, just please be careful.”

He smiled, “Always,” and closed the door. 

Opening the portal to the Dark Ocean was painful; there was a lot of screaming involved, which had gotten the attention of an already worried Mrs. Takaishi. The last thing Kari saw before they went through was her worried face as the door opened. 

They were now on a beach, all feeling a chill. Everything seemed greyscale. Only the Digidestined and their partners had color, though they were muted. Two lines of Scubamon framed the path from their position to the shore. There were five flashes of light in quick succession and everyone was at their Champion Level. Before they could fight, there was a crack of thunder, and the ocean split in two. Both sides receded to show a staircase, and at the end of it, a giant castle. 

“Great, another Moses wannabe,” Davis muttered under his breath, “‘cause we’ve had such a great experience with those.”

“Davis,” Kari said in a small voice, “please don’t make this being mad.”

_ I hate that I sound so scared _

He opened his mouth to say something, but must have thought better of it, because he stopped.

Kari took a deep breath, and straightened her back. 

_ No more fear  _

She took the first step, leading the way for the Digidestined as they descended the stairs until the ground leveled out and they marched towards the castle. 

As they neared the castle, they could see that it was carved from giant crystals, and now was coated in coral and barnacles.

“Welcome, Digidestined,” the voice seemed to come from everywhere. It wasn’t loud, in fact, it spoke in a conversational tone. 

Some of them stopped to look around, but a quick “C’mon!” from Davis got them moving again. As they walked up a spiral staircase, the voice continued to talk.

“Long ago, three of you came to visit me, and now you’ve returned…”

They reached the top of the stairs to find an exposed balcony on the top of the castle. A throne sat in the middle on a raised circular platform facing away from them.

“...and the rest of you have joined them.”

“Alright, listen buddy,” Davis power walked to the throne, “I don’t know who you think you are with this ‘Dark Undersea Master’ shtick, but you bet-” he stopped as he passed the throne to see its occupancy. “It’s empty!” He began to return back to the group, “You know, I bet there isn’t even a Dark whatever.”

As he finished his sentence, a dark shape appeared below the water and began to rise. It broke the surface, revealing a large round head with a giant, gaping jaw. Wings rose from the water next. The rest of his body appeared to be tentacles wrapped together in approximations of limbs. The creature wore chain bracelets on both arms, and on one leg, with the other one having a pair of gold bands. Water cascaded off his massive body, splashing off of his other limbs. 

And just like that, the courage Kari had gathered was gone.

“Oh, hello,” Davis answered, shrinking back from the towering figure, “I assume you’re the Dark Undersea Master?”

“I am, however you may call me Dragomon.” 

“So you  _ are _ a Digimon?” TK yelled his question.

“There is no need to raise your voice, Mr. Takaishi, I assure you I can hear you. And yes, I am a Digimon. Beyond that, I am likely the oldest Digimon in existence.”

“But this isn’t the Digital World, so how are you here?”

“Oh, but this is the Digital World, Miss Inoue. In fact, it’s all that’s left of the original Digital World.”

_ The original Digital World? What does that mean? _

Kari looked around and saw that everyone was as confused as she was.

Dragomon laughed, “You don’t know? The chosen children of the Digital World don’t know? Very well, allow me to explain,” His tone became serious and sad, “Lifetimes ago, I ruled over the Net Ocean, until a primordial being appeared, whose very presence shook the Digital World to the core. We know not where it came from, but we called it Zeed.”

She didn’t know why, but hearing the name sent a shiver down her spine.

“The Digital World was destroyed, and to save my people, I used my power to hold the ocean together. We drifted through the Quantized Sea, but without the rest of the Digital World, we were at the mercy of the elements. Darkness coated our world, mutating the Scubamon into their current forms. Only a tiny amount of light seeped in, they became addicted to it, until you,” he raised a tentacle at Ken, “built that dark obelisk, blocking out the light.”

“I’m… I’m so sorry.”

“They became so desperate for the light that called Kari here, feeding off the light generated by her mere presence. Then she destroyed the tower, the sheer amount of light flooding into the world was absorbed by her partner, who used it to Digivolve.”

Yolei rubbed her chin, “But the Scubamon tried to use Kari to overthrow you, why would you want to bring her back?”

“I don’t want her here,” he seemed genuinely confused, “which is why you must now leave.”

The castle shook and tentacles started to rise from the edges of the balcony and move towards the Digidestined. 

“Oh no,” Kari stepped back.

“Hey,” TK put his hand on her shoulder, “we’ll get through this, we always do,” he smiled to reassure her, “Right, Angemon?”

“Right.”

Six flashes of light, and three Digimon emerged, Shakkoumon, Silphymon, and Paildramon stood ready to fight, standing in a circle around their human partners. Two more flashes of light and Imperialdramon Fighter Mode was ready. The tentacles lunged forward and were met with a circle of defense. Shakkoumon launched small devices that stuck to the tentacles, moments later they exploded, shriveled up, and fell back down the castle. Silphymon created a ball of red energy, they thrust their hands forward and a bolt of red lightning shot out of it, bouncing from tentacle to tentacle, repelling each of them. Imperialdramon stomped on one tentacle, grabbed another, and fired their laser into a third.

“I’m going for the head, can you handle everything here?” The voices of ExVeemon and Stingmon came out of the Mega level Digimon.

“Go!” Shakkoumon and Silphymon spoke in unison, four voices rang out.

_ I hope this works.  _

Imperialdramon lifted into the air and held his hands forward. A white light appeared in front of him, he touched it with one hand and pulled out a white sword from it. The white light covered his whole body and he entered Paladin Mode. 

“Creature of darkness, face the power of the Omni Sword!” He raised the blade above his head and buried it deep into Dragomon’s head. 

His tentacles went rigid, then started shaking, then started disintegrating. 

A laugh came in on the wind, and with it, a chill. Imperialdramon looked around, the Omni Sword at the ready. 

A purple-winged Digimon in a red cloak flew into view. 

“Daemon!” Ken exclaimed, clenching his fist.

“You shouldn’t have done that.”

“Imperialdramon, get him!”

“Got it.”

He swung his sword, but before it could complete it’s arch, Daemon raised his hand, and the sword ricocheted off of the air.

Daemon laughed, “You have no power here! You gain your strength from the light, and you have just destroyed this world’s only connection to it.”

“We need to leave,” Cody grabbed Davis, who was staring in disbelief at Daemon as a stream of fire blasted from his hands, barely being blocked by Imperialdramon. “Now!” He pulled him away to the rest of the Digidestined who were already running. 

Kari led the way, running back down the spiral staircase and through the castle. 

_ Get away, make sure everyone is safe. _

As they exited the castle, Davis stopped. “What are we doing? We should stand and fight!”

“Are you insane?” Yolei asked, incredulously, “Imperialdramon is the strongest Digimon on our side, and he’s being thrown around like a ragdoll!”

As if to prove her point, Imperialdramon slammed into the ground in front of them, degenerating into Chibomon and Leafmon. Davis stopped arguing and grabbed both Baby Digimon and started running again. They couldn’t see what was happening, but flashes of light and sounds of explosions made it easy to guess. 

Silphymon landed on their feet in front of the group, they braced to jump again, but before they could, they got hit by a blast of fire and degenerated.

_ Please no. _

“Ken, we can’t wait, open the gate now!” TK was jogging backwards so he could see what was happening.

Ken raised his Digivice and the screaming started. Quickly this time, the Digidestined flocked to him, trying to help him, except TK who watched Shakkoumon hit the ground, Daemon gripping him. He raised his fist and there was a crack upon its impact, causing Shakkoumon to degenerate. Daemon raised his claws again, stopping when he saw TK staring at him.

“You still don’t recognise me, do you TK?”

Kari looked over her shoulder.

_ Recognize him?  _

“And I don’t mean from when my corps tried to take your friend.”

“Then… when do you mean?”

Daemon laughed, throwing his head back, allowing Upamon and Patamon to get free, retreating to their partners, “Still? Do I have to spell it out to you?”

Ken grew silent, and the portal opened, quietly he limped through, followed by the others. 

“TK, come on!” Davis yelled, waving his hands in the air. “We gotta go!”

Kari started to step through the portal, but stopped when she heard Daemon’s next words.

“Four years ago.”

_ Oh no. _

TK’s breathing grew heavy.

“File Island,”

“No,” TK stumbled backwards, tightened his grip on Patamon.

“I didn’t think you’d so easily forget the Digimon who killed your partner.”

TK was transfixed on the spot, wide eyed and breathing heavily, muttering “Not again,” over and over again.

“Of course I cannot allow a repeat of last time,” Daemon raised his hand, fire building in his palm.

_ No!  _

Before she fully understood what she was doing she found her feet hitting the ground hard. She stopped, planting her feet firmly in the ground and shoved TK out of the way of the attack. She started to jump out of the way, but took a glancing blow from Daemon’s blast of dark fire. 

She wasn’t sure if she blacked out, but next thing she knew, she was being dragged across the ground away from Angemon and Gatomon fighting Daemon. She was numb, but faintly aware of TK’s grip on her arms, all sound was quiet, aside from a ringing in her ears. Dully, she registered that she had crossed through the portal, but to her surprise, they weren’t back in TK’s room; they were in a grassy field.

She let out a cry as all her senses came back to her at once, the searing pain in her right side, the feeling of the melted part of her shirt sticking to her injury, and the sound of Ken’s voice.

“I’m sorry, it just felt easier somehow to open a portal to the Digital World, and I knew there was a TV nearby.”

Angemon hit Daemon with a Hand of Fate, grabbed Gatomon, and flew through the portal. But before it could close, Daemon got in the way, his hands and feet wrapped around the edges of the portal, using physical force to keep it open. His cloak ripped to reveal a monstrous form, a red furry body with purple exposed skin. He let out a roar and the portal began to open further.

“Digiport Open!” 

Kari felt the familiar embrace of the Digiport before appearing in TKs room. 

“Mom, call an ambulance!” He crouched down near Kari’s head, “Hang in there.”

“Yolei, close the Digiport, we can’t let Daemon leave the Dark Ocean,” Cody ran back to the screen looking through the screen at the fight. 

“Got it!” She raised her Digivice, black sparks flew from her Digivice, she yelped and dropped it. The window to the Digital World vanished.

“What? Wait, our partners are still in there. I'm going back.” Davis stepped forward, “Digiport Open!”

Nothing happened.

“Digiport Open!”

Nothing again.

“Please?” 

A sinking feeling formed in Kari’s gut, through the haze of the pain. 

Cody sagged down onto the bed, “What have we done?”

  
_ This is all my fault. _


	2. Darkness Returns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 9 Months after the Battle of the Dark Ocean, the original Digidestined meet to discuss what’s been happening since then.

**Darkness Returns**

Nine Months Later

“In my absence, you have fought those who would impede me,” a raspy voice spoke. It sounded like knives being sharpened on a chalkboard. “In my return, you have obeyed my will and served as my guardian as I regain my strength.”

A giant pulled on armor made from the skulls of his opponents, each one meticulously reformed from the data released by dead Digimon. The anguish and rage of a thousand dead Digimon screamed from it.

“But you have had one failing. You have allowed the Digidestined to live.”

A green hand gripped a sword hilt. Between the hilt and blade was a giant beastial skull. The rage of a dead Digimon growled through the blade.

“I feel your fear. I know this is a day you have been dreading.”

He painted red onto his armor.

“So I will house my power in you. I will give you strength.”

A light green mist rams into the giant’s chest, surrounding him in an aura, and then getting sucked inside him. 

  
  


Tai leaned against a wall, one hand in his pocket fidgeting with his Digivice. When Davis’s team had gone to the Dark Ocean, they had locked the Digiport, and no one had been able to get to the Digital World since October sixth. Now it’s June seventeenth, and the original Digidestined are having their monthly meeting. 

_ I still can’t believe they would be that stupid.  _

“Tai! Wait up!”

Tai put his foot in the elevator door to stop it, and it opened to reveal TK.

“Thanks,” TK panted, his hands on his knees.

“No problem,” Tai started getting suspicious when TK didn’t look up after he caught his breath. “You didn’t tell Davis and the others about this, did you?”

“No,” TK still didn’t meet his gaze, “but I still don’t understand why you’re so mad at them.” TK looked up, “I’m the reason Kari got hurt. As for the Digiport, we just did what we thought was right.”   
  
‘ _ We.’ He chose that word. _

__ Tai swallowed his anger, “C’mon TK, you’re one of us.”

“There was a time when ‘one of us’ meant all Digidestined, not just the eight of us,” TK pulled out his D3, “I think you forget that I have one of these.” 

The elevator door opened before Tai could reply, and Sora was stepping out of the stairway. 

“Hey, guys!” She stopped and waited for them to catch up. 

“Hey, Sora, it’s been a while,” any sign of TK’s fight with Tai was gone from his voice.

The three of them made small talk until they got to the door of Izzy’s apartment. Tai reached out and rang the doorbell. Mrs. Izumi answered the door.

“Hello,” she said cheerfully. “Good to see you all again!”

“Thank you, Mrs. Izumi,” Sora replied, matching her cheerful tone, “May we come in?”

“Of course,” she stepped aside, “I think everyone else is already here.”

_ It better not be everybody.  _

Thankfully, ‘everyone else’ only included the original eight Digidestined, with the obvious exception of Mimi.

“It has been two hundred and eighty-five days since the Digital World was sealed,” Izzy started as soon as Tai, TK, and Sora had sat down, with barely any formalities exchanged, “Since then, in addition to being unable to open a Digiport, we have noticed no activities from the Digital World, or any other world from that matter.” He turned to Kari, “Still nothing from the Dark Ocean?”

“No, nothing.”

“That’s good to hear,” a ringing sound emanated from Izzy’s laptop. Since their first adventure in the Digital World, Izzy had built himself a new laptop, as he needed more processing power and other modern advancements in his laptop, but he also needed to keep Gennai’s upgrades. There were a few clicks of Izzy’s mouse, and he turned it around to show Mimi’s face to the others. 

“Hi, everyone!” She waved, her hand lagging a little, “Sorry I missed the last meeting, but it’s the middle of the night here.”

_ Right, if it’s fourteen hundred here, it must be one or something where she is.  _

“Sorry to have you up so late, we’ll try to find a better time for next time,” Tai leaned over to make sure his head was in Mimi’s limited view.

“It’s not that bad, a new coffee shop opened up nearby. I am obsessed,” she reaches to her camera and pans it around to her desk where five cups of take-out coffee sat, a blur of pixels and it was back to her, sipping from a sixth cup.

“Ar- Are those all from today?” Joe asked, “Because that amount of caf-”

“Calm down, doctor,” she chuckled, “these are from the last week.”

The screen glitched

“Wo_h, gu__, I c_n _arely _ee you, _f _ou’_e _ay_ng so_e__in_ I ___’t ____ _ou, I’__ _a_l ___ __ck,” Mimi hung up.

Izzy bolted to his feet, and turned his laptop around to face him, “That wasn’t a normal glitch,” he looked up. “Someone opened a Digiport.”

The building shook and the Digidestined raced into action.

They managed to get to Shibuya Crossing, where a giant green Digimon stood below a crack in the sky, through it, the Digital World could be seen. The giant carried a sword almost the size of his entire body. The Digimon towered over the surrounding buildings, the Digidestined didn’t even come up to the top of his feet.

“Izzy, what do you have on this guy?” Tai reached into his pocket and pulled out his Digivice.

Izzy plugged his Digivice into his laptop, “Titamon, Virus Digimon, God Man type,” he swallowed, “Mega level, he’s called the One Man Division.”

Kari held her head, “Does it say anything about that sound?”

_ Sound? _

“What sound?” TK’s words echoed Tai’s thoughts.

“You don’t hear it? It’s like screaming.”

“That, young Digidestined,” Titamon turned to face them, every step caused the ground to shake, and more debris to fall, “is your future. When you fall, your skull shall be joining the multitude of others protecting me. I’m surprised you can hear them, you must be intune with the Digital World.” He lifted his sword and a low growl came from it, audible to all, “I have been sent to ensure your destruction.”

Matt smirked.

_ What could he be happy about now? _

__ “You’re far from the worst we’ve ever fought, don’t be so sure you’ll win.”

Titamon laughed, “You are seven human children, what can you do to stop me?”

“Us? Not much, but you left the Digiport open.”

As if on cue, seven beams of light shot down from the sky. The beams shrunk back into the sky to reveal the Digidestined’s partner Digimon.

Tai tightened his grip on his Digivice, “No time for ‘hellos’, the city’s in danger.”

There were nods and comments of affirmation. Six flashes of light later, there were seven Champion level Digimon. Angemon grabbed Gatomon and lifted into the air with Birdramon and Kabuterimon. Greymon charged forward, hunching over and grabbing the front of Titamon’s foot and lifted. The giant’s foot came into the air, Greymon hoisted it above his head. In retaliation Titamon lifted his other foot so his entire weight fell onto Greymon, it slammed into the ground on top of Greymon, it appeared as if nothing had even happened, and Titamon was just standing on a normal part of the street. 

“Greymon! No!” Tai started to step forward, but stopped. 

__ _ There’s nothing I can do. _

Garurumon leapt forward, a blast of blue energy erupted from his mouth, it splashed into Titamon’s other leg, coating it in ice. Ikkakumon roared, fire burst out from the base of his horn, it split in four and his Harpoon Torpedo launched into the air, it collided with the giant’s forearm, which he had raised to protect his face. 

_ So much for the ‘One Man Division’, he’s getting beat by a bunch of Champion levels. _

Birdramon flew above Titamon’s head, she flapped her wings intensely and four fireballs flew towards her target. They met their desired impact points on Titamon’s chest, who growled in response. Kabuterimon charged a bolt of electricity, and a few seconds later, it hit Titamon’s lower back. Kabuterimon rose higher into the air, dragging the electricity up his target’s back. Angemon held his staff in one hand, as usual, the other he held flat with Gatomon perched on it. He threw the rod so hard that it dug into the giant’s chest and stuck, and he thrust his other hand into the sky, launching Gatomon high into the air. Angemon pulled back his fist gathering holy energy, and following through with the punch sent the energy into Titamon, he actually roared in pain in reaction to this. Moments later, Gatomon landed a kick on the giant’s chest, using the momentum to bounce backwards onto Angemon’s staff, it bent under her weight and she used its straightening to launch herself towards Angemon. Angemon grabbed the feline Digimon and waited for another attack.

One that would never come.

Titamon laughed, “Impressive. Most impressive for Champion level Digimon, but,” he flexed his leg and the ice shattered, he reached to his chest and snapped the Angel Rod. “I fought at Field of Dragons during the Fall of Iliad, you are nothing.”

_ What does that mean? _

Titamon’s foot started rising.

_ No way. _

From underneath Titamon’s foot, WarGreymon was lifting, his Dramon Destroyers braced against the giant’s foot. He staggered backwards off of Wargreymon, who flew over to Tai and Matt. 

“He’s strong,” WarGreymon sounded tired, something that was unusual for a freshly Digivolved Digimon, “We need Omnimon.”

Matt nodded, raising his Digivice towards Garurumon, who was on the other side of Titamon, “Got it. Ready Garurumon?”

“Ready!” He growled, beginning to glow. He Warp Digivolved to MetalGarurumon, the sun glinting off of his Digizoid armor. The Cyborg Digimon sprinted towards WarGreymon, his wings extended, lifting him off the ground a little. 

“No!” Titamon raised his sword, the wind blowing through it creating a low growl, he swung it down and the growl became a roar. The sword hit the ground behind MetalGarurumon, and he quickly began to lift it again, debris clinging to it. WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon began to glow, they reached towards each other, but before they could meet, Titamon’s sword slammed down, throwing up dust.

“No,” Matt choked.

Tai looked down and saw his Digivice glowing, “Yes!”

From the dust cloud came a glowing white blur. It stopped in front of Titamon’s head, where it became clear that the blur was Omnimon, still glowing. He thrust out his left arm, the Transcendent Sword slammed out with a burst of steam. With his right arm held casually to their side, the Supreme Cannon emerged.

Titamon recoiled, shielding his eyes from the light, “I have done battle with the Olympus XII, destroyed some of them, you are nothing.” Despite the confidence of words, he was afraid. He tightened his grip on his sword and began to lift it again.

Without shifting their gaze, Omnimon fired the Supreme Cannon into Titamon’s hands, they flung open and the sword clattered to the ground with a sad-sounding roar. Omnimon raised his sword, it glowed with an orange energy and he swung it forward, the Transcendent Sword threw a disk of orange into Titamon’s head. Data began to leak from the injury and Omnimon began flying lower, in a downward circle around Titamon, firing the Supreme Cannon as he went. He flew between the giant’s legs, stabbing his sword into the eye on his belt and dragging it up his torso. He stopped and pulled it out, returning to hovering in front of Titamon’s head. 

_ We got him. _

He was immediately hit by a blast of green mist coming from the injury in Titamon’s forehead. The pressure of it sent Omnimon flying into a building, the windows on the entire face of the building shattered and they fell to the ground. 

_ What? _

“You may have defeated me,” Titamon rasped out, gasping for breath, “but you have no idea what you’ve unleashed here,” he fell to his knees and grabbed his sword by the blade, “what my master will do to me for failing,” he pulls the blade into his chest releasing a torrent of data, “is infinitely more horrific than oblivion.”

Titamon let out a scream and exploded into data.

Kari let out a sigh, “That’s better.”

“Don’t relax yet,” Matt said, looking up at the mist, “something is still happening.”

The mist began to take the shape of tendrils, one of them lunged forward, knocking Gatomon off Angemon’s hand, he tried to catch the cat Digimon but was grabbed by a separate mist construct and whipped into the ground. The two of them were intertwined with several others into one giant bludgeoning weapon that slammed into the two Digimon, forcing them to Degenerate. Kabuterimon fires a bolt of Electro Shocker which goes through the mist and hits Birdramon, a tendril grabs Birdramon and slams her into Kabuterimon, repeatedly until he degenerates, it keeps slamming Birdramon into the ground near Tentomon until she Degenerates as well. At the same time as this was happening, Ikkakumon fired a Harpoon Torpedo, which the mist grabbed before it was launched, forcing it to explode at point blank, Degenerating him into Gomamon. Omnimon emerged from the rubble, shaking it off. 

_ Now the real fight begins.  _

Tai was wrong.

Exhausted, Omnimon was unable to block the upcoming attack, the mist wrapped around his arms and held him in a ‘T’ position. Sparks flew from Omnimon’s shoulders and his arms were torn off, the body vanished into a cloud of data and the arms returned to their In-Training forms. With all of the Digimon in its light-green grasp, the mist retreated through the portal, two tendrils reached towards the edges of the rift in the sky slamming the portal shut with an audible ‘bang’.

The Digidestined stood there in silence for several minutes, before Joe asked the obvious question. 

“What just happened?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I wrote this I thought that The Battle of the Dark Ocean would be an outlier when it came to length. But this is about the length of chapters through the fic. Chapter 1 set up character conflicts, this chapter was setting up the major conflict, the next chapter sets up the new characters.


	3. Introductions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five kids meet their Digimon partners

**Introductions**

One Year Later; To the Day

_I’ve been here three weeks, no need to still be nervous._

Ruby walked through the hallways on her way to her first class. She was wearing a pink hat that had cat ears and braided strings hanging down over her shoulders with her reddish light brown hair.

_Just go in and talk to Cody, that’ll get your mind off things._

She pulled her hat off before she got in trouble. It messed up her hair a little, but it would settle down fairly quickly. She straightened her back and picked up the pace of her walking. She entered the classroom and stopped in front of Cody’s desk and tapped out a short rhythm on it. 

“Cody! What’s up?”

She wouldn’t necessarily describe Cody as her friend. They never really hung out outside of school and this was the only class they had together, but he was the only one in class to go out of his way to introduce himself to her. 

He jumped, and composed himself, “Hello, Ruby. How are you?”

“Good, how are you? Good? Good,” the words came out in a jumble. “Okay, you see that clock?” She pointed at the clock at the front of the room.

“Yes?”

“How far ahead is it?”

He looked at his watch, “Nine minutes.” He looked back at Ruby, “Why do you ask?”

“Every day for the past two weeks, I have been staying after school and winding the clock ahead one minute.”

“Why?”

“So that we get out early ten minutes on Monday.”

He knitted his brow, “But we haven’t been getting out any earlier the other days.”

Ruby opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off by a pair of hands suddenly on her shoulders.

“Ruby!”

She let out a squeak and turned around, “Ferris! I swear to- I am going to cut off all your hair.”

Ferris’s smile faded as his face shifted into a mock expression of fear. He gathered as much of his hair as he could and cradled it, “Not my luscious locks.”

She laughed, “What did I tell you about saying that? You have to stop.”

“That’s not helping your case,” he started backing out of the classroom, “I only say it because it bothers you.”

He turned around and jogged into the mostly empty hallway, his friend Kalev waiting to meet him. His short blonde hair contrasted Ferris’s long blonde hair. He said something to Ferris and looked into the classroom.

“For the record, I told him not to.”

Kalev smiled and went off into the hall waving at Ferris. Mila came down the hall, said something to Kalev, and stopped near Ferris, they exchanged a few words and a few laughs. The bell rang and they ran off. Ruby had spent almost all of her summers for as long as she could remember in Japan, usually spending at least a week in Tokyo. About five years ago, she had met Ferris and later Mila, a friend of his, the three of them hit it off and they became friends. So when she moved here full time, she had hoped that it would make things easier. To an extent, it did. She had a handful of classes with them and they introduced her to Kalev. Things were a little awkward between them, but that’s because while she was close with Ferris and Mila, and he was close with Ferris and Mila, they hadn’t become close themselves yet.

_Still time for that to happen. Besides, I don’t have to be super close to everyone._

She was walking home after school when she heard a trash can fall over. She looked over and saw a trash can on its side, its contents spilled onto the sidewalk and on the road. She debated cleaning it up, but kept walking.

_Not my problem._

She stopped, gritting her teeth.

_But I should do it anyway._

She stooped over, scooping the trash back into the container. She grabbed a can and tossed it inside.

_Really? I go out of my way to help save the environment, and half this stuff should be in the recycling._

She tossed in another can.

“Ow.”

_Ow?_

She looked into the can, “Um, hello?”

_Is there a kid in here?_

Two glowing eyes looked back.

_A cat. I must have heard a ‘meow’._

She reached her hand in, “Come here, kitty.” She clicked her tongue, “Here, kitty kitty kitty.” 

She felt a tongue on her finger, and, satisfied, stood up to leave.

“How demeaning.”

_A voice? Oh no. Gross._

Enraged, she turned back to the trash can, “What is wrong with you?” She bent over, “You pretend to be a cat so you can lick me? What is your problem?”

“Alright, let’s get this over with.” The ‘cat’ waddled out of the trash can on two legs, “Hello, my name is Meomon.” She extended a stubby arm, her fur was mostly black with a white muzzle and interior ears, as well as a white-tipped tail. “And this might be a little hard to explain.”

_I’ve lost it._

“I am a Digimon and you are my partner.”

Ruby swallowed, “Um, what does that mean?” She stopped before Meomon could talk, “Okay, I know what a partner is, but what are we partners for?”

“Saving the world.”

  
  


Ferris sat in the room that belonged to him and his foster brother, looking out his window. 

“Psst.”

Ferris tensed, expecting to see him in the doorway, but when he turned, there wasn’t anyone there.

“Over here.”

_Coming from the window?_

Ferris stood up and leaned out the window. On the fire escape he saw some sort of animal. It was grey and vaguely resembled a cat. Its tail ended in a knife-like metal blade, as did its ears. It had a flat face, not like a pug, but still flat. 

“Are you talking?”

“Yup,” the creature responded, “I’m Turtumon, and this is yours.” He bats an object across the grate. 

Ferris pulls it in the window. It had a grip like a walkie talkie, with three large light blue buttons. As Ferris grabbed it, his fingers fell perfectly into the three finger grooves, it felt like it was designed specifically for his hand. Near the top there was a square-shaped object, but instead of normal corners, it had rounded, in-facing edges. On this part, there were three buttons around a screen, the majority of it was a light blue-grey color with black edges. 

“I’m in.”

Turtumon looked confused, “What? You’re in? In for what?”

“I don’t know, but this seems like an adventure. World-saving type stuff, right?” Ferris was excited, he reached up and pushed the hair out of his eyes.

“I mean, yeah.”

  
  


Mila sat in the room alone, which was a rare thing. She was only half paying attention to the drawing she was working on, as her sisters were arguing again. Over something petty, no doubt. As annoying as the argument was, there was, somehow, a more annoying noise. A perpetual ‘boing’.

“Mila, look what I found.” The ‘boing’ grew louder as her younger brother entered the room.

_No alone time._

She wasn’t resentful of the interruption, but it would have been nice to have some time alone. She swiveled the chair around.

“Yes, Hugo?”

She had planned to say something else, but she stopped when she saw what was bouncing next to Hugo. The only sound that left her mouth was an “Errr.”

It was a brown sphere with white wool on its head. Small horns poked out of the wool, and ears flopped down the sphere’s sides.

“Um, Hugh, what is that?”

“Hi!” bounce. “Pleased,” bounce, “to”, bounce, “meet” bounce, “you!”

“Mila, this is Arimon,” Hugo gestured to the bouncing creature, “She is a Digimon, and my partner.”

“What’s a Digimon?”

Hugo and Arimon started talking, but Mila was spaced out, staring at Arimon as she bounced.

_Down._

Boing

_Up._

“... Digital World…”

_Down._

Boing.

_Up._

“...Digivice…”

_Down._

Boing.

_Up._

“...partner....”

_Down._

Boing.

_Up._

“Mila?”

_Down._

Boing.

_Up._

“Mila!”

She jerked back to reality.

“What?”

Hugo let out an exasperated sigh, “Did you listen to anything I said?”

She considered saying yes, but decided not to, averting her gaze, “No.”

“Wow, humans sure are strange!” She had stopped bouncing and was making steady eye contact with Mila. “And even though it is really good to meet you, there’s someone else you should meet.”

What looked to be a blue rodent hopped into the room. It was mostly light blue, but it had dark blue fur around the neck and at the end of its tail. The creature stopped and looked at Mila.

“Is that it?” The creature’s green eyes went up to Mila.

_Should I be offended by that?_

The creature seemed to shrug, “Alright,” it hopped forward. “My name is Baomon.”

  
  


_Is that smoke?_

Kalev bolted up in bed, but it wasn’t the smoke that woke him up. His doorknob was rattling.

_No one should be cooking this late at night._

He put his glasses on, slid out of bed, moved to the door, and he patted the doorknob.

_It’s hot._

Then a voice came from the otherside of the door, “This would be a lot easier with thumbs.”

The door opened and an almost ghostly flame floated in. Except it wasn’t just a flame. It seemed to have short arms and no legs. It just floated. Most bizarrely of all, there was a single eye in the center of what appeared to be its head. 

“Sorry about the smoke, I-”

“Are you sentient?” Kalev leaned in, feeling the heat on his face, “How does that work? Do you have a brain? You seem to be made of fire, but you have a normal eye.”

“Yes. I don’t follow your laws of physics. I’m insulted by that question. And yes.”

“Wait, what do you mean ‘your laws of physics’?”

“We can do this all day, but I’d rather not. I’m on a mission, and I need your help.”

  
  


“Cody?”

Cody was in the middle of putting away his Kendo gear when he heard Armidillomon’s voice.

“Armadillomon?” Cody turned, and saw his partner standing in his doorway as if nothing had happened. “You’re okay!” Cody ran to Armadillomon and embraced the Vaccine Digimon, “How did this happen?”

“Well, Cody, there’s trouble in the Digital World.”

“Daemon?”

“No, we couldn’t get him back into the Dark Ocean, but we haven’t seen him since, but a lot happened after that. First, the Digital World collided with a different world. That had its own bunch of new protectors and new enemies and whatnot… but a year ago, an even more powerful Digimon came. Everyone’s afraid of him, but no one will do a thing about it, so I was sent here with five others to get new Digidestined.” Armadillomon’s nose twitched, “Achoo!” When he sneezed, a ball of light came out of his mouth. As it went into Cody’s pocket, he felt his Digivice change. He pulled it out and it was different. It had lost its distinctive yellow color, it was now the same generic blue-grey as the original Digidestineds’. The top of it was also shaped like their Digivices, but it had a handle more like the D3s. 

“Tomorrow’s Saturday,” Cody looked at his Digivice, the monitor showed five dots near the edges of the screen. “That will be a good day to find the others.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m not forcing myself to pad the chapter for content, all of this is just coming out organically. Next time the team officially forms, there are connections there already but not really a team yet. Also in case you didn’t catch on, all of the Digimon are currently in their In-Training forms, except for Armadillomon, so don’t get too used to these designs and names.


	4. Team

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cody decides looks for the other Digidestined, and they gather supplies for their journey.

**Team**

It was the day after Armadillomon had returned and Cody was following the dots on his Digivice. He knew from experience that they represented either Digieggs or other Digivices, and because all Digieggs were accounted for, it had to be other Digivices. Presumably the other Digidestined that Armadillomon had mentioned, since there were only five dots.

“Cody, are we any closer?” Armadillomon was in a wagon being pulled by Cody with a blanket thrown over him. This was the most recent of their many attempts to hide Armadillomon. 

“Yes, I think the others have found each other. All the dots are grouped together.”

“Cody!” 

Ruby jogged across the park, the grass being displaced by her steps.

“Hello, Ruby,” he nodded his head. “What are you doing here?”

She shrugged, “Public park, I’m just seeing some friends. What about you?”

“I’m actually looking for someone.” He looked around the clearing and saw a grove of trees nearby.

_ They could be here.  _

Ruby followed his gaze, “Oh, who are you looking for, maybe I can help?”

“Well, I am not entirely sure,” he snuck a look at his Digivice.

_ It can’t be. _

The Digivice showed one dot away from the others. It was right next to him.

“You?”

“Why are you saying that as a question? Either you’re looking for me or you aren’t.”

Cody held up his Digivice.

“Oh my god! You have one too!” Ruby was practically jumping in excitement. “You should meet the rest of us.” She grabbed Cody’s hand and pulled him along, while he pulled Armadillomon in the wagon. 

_ Why do I feel more concerned knowing who they are?  _

“Cody, this is Ferris,” Ruby gestured to a boy in a green hoodie and a baseball hat with some sort of super hero logo on it, “his partner Turtumon,” a grey animalistic Digimon with blades on his body. Cody raised his eyebrows at that. 

_ They move fast. _

“Kalev,” he had short hair and glasses, and was actively examining his Digivice, “and Otumon,” Otumon looked to be made of pure fire with the exception of a single regular eye. He hovered above a pile of rocks, presumably so that he wouldn't catch the grass on fire.

_ So they think things through. _

What he didn’t see was the patch of burned grass and the singed bottom of Kalev’s shoe.

“Mila and her brother Hugo,” a short dark-haired girl and a slightly taller boy of a similar hair color, “and their respective partners, Baomon and Arimon.” A blue furry Digimon, and a wooly Digimon that was just a bouncing head.

_ Armadillomon told me they were In-Training level, but most of them look past that. _

He looked at Arimon.

_ Or lower. _

“Everyone, this is Cody.”

Cody bowed, “Pleased to meet you.”

“You too, but, um,” Ferris turned to Ruby, “Why are you telling him about the Digimon? Do you have any notion of secret identities?”

“No, it’s fine. Cody is one of us, too.”

Cody lifted his Digivice and pulled the blanket off of Armadillomon’s head, “Howdy, I’m Armadillomon.”

“What?” Otumon flared up, “Why do you get to stay at the Rookie level?”

“Well, I just plain got used to being in this world,” he paused, and tilted his head. “Although I suppose it might have something to do with the power Azulongmon gave me and the others.”

“Others?” As Hugo spoke his sister’s eyes suddenly seemed to refocus, and she looked around, before settling on Cody.

He explained everything: the Digital World, Digimon, Digivolution, Digidestined, what they do, and who they are.

“That sounds dangerous,” Mila was looking at Hugo as she spoke.

_ I can’t lie to them.  _

“It is,” he made eye contact with all of them, “I don’t know what we’re doing, I can’t promise we’ll all survive it, but if we do,” he smiled, “it will change your life for the better.” He rubbed Armadillomon’s head.

“What if we say no?” Kalev looked away from the Digivice.

_ What?  _

“I- No one’s ever tried,” Cody stammered. “I don’t think you can.”

“Hmm.” Kalev stood up, “ _ I _ will be the judge of that.” He pulled back his hand.

“Wait, what are you doing?” Otumon’s eye narrowed with suspicion.

“Dude, come on!” Ferris threw up his hands, “This is going to be fun.”

Kalev threw his hand forward hard, throwing the Digivice. When it got about three meters away, there was a flash from the Digivice and it suddenly changed directions, flying back to Kalev’s hand.

“Well, I guess that answers that,” Ferris relaxed again.

Kalev replied, “Not quite.” He lifted the Digivice above his head and threw it to the ground, then he lifted his foot.

“Oh yeah. Real mature,” Ruby sounded annoyed, but she was watching what Kalev was doing intently. 

As he tried to step on the Digivice, a transparent light green bubble appeared around the Digivice. The foot bounced off the bubble and the Digivice was driven into the ground a few centimeters. As soon as his foot was moving away from the Digivice, the bubble shrunk and vanished.

“Ok, now I am satisfied,” he sat down, and put the Digivice in his lap. “But that does open new questions,” he began examining the Digivice again.

“Do you really want to quit?” Otumon stared at Kalev.

“What?” Kalev looked up from his project, “No, why would I-?” realization dawned on him. “Oh. No, I was just testing something.”

_ They might have potential, and they seem to already know each other. _

“So that settles it, we’re a team.” Ferris looked around, “Right?”

“Absolutely!” Ruby pumped her fist.

“I’m in,” Kalev nodded.

“I guess,” Mila sounded hesitant.

Hugo started to say something, but Mila cut him off, “But not Hugo. He’s too young.”

_ He can’t be younger than I was, or TK and Kari. _

“What?” Hugo asked incredulously, “That isn’t fair, I’m barely two years younger than you.” 

“Hugo. You know I’m just looking out for you.”

“Great. I really appreciate it,” he stood up, scooped up Arimon, and stormed off.

“Hugh, come back,” she stood up, “Hugo!”

“I would rather not get involved in a family argument,” Cody started, “but how old is he?”

“Ten,” Mila said, shortly.

“Then,” he hesitated, “he’s older than I was.”

“It’s a little more than that,” she averted her eyes, “He’s just a little fragile, that’s all.”

He sighed, “Alright.”

A breeze came and the five Digivices changed colors momentarily; Cody’s was yellow and dark grey, Kalev’s was white and the classic Digivice blue, Mila’s was lavender and black, Ruby’s was orange and dark blue, and Ferris’s was blue and red. It only happened for a second, so Cody didn’t get a good look at them before they went back to the blue-grey, but the colors’ locations weren’t uniform. The D3s all had uniformed patterns of colors, but these ones didn’t. Cody didn’t have the chance to think about it any further, because as the colors flashed, the air between them split open, showing an entirely different landscape. 

“Woah,” Ruby slowly stood up, and reached towards the rip.

“Don’t!” Kalev grabbed her hand. “We don’t know what it is.”

“That’s a Digiport,” Cody had also stood up.

“And it’s home.” Baomon hopped forward a little.

“Wait,” Baomon stopped as Cody spoke, “This is the first Digiport that’s been open in a year, aside from the one you came through. If we go through, we don’t know when we’ll be able to come back.”

_ I don’t know how to handle this, when I was in the Digital World we could leave whenever we wanted. _

“Let’s find out,” Kalev threw his Digivice through the portal. It went about two meters through the portal before turning around, but rather than coming back through the portal, it hit an invisible barrier.

Mila spoke next, “So what do we do?”

“I have some money,” Ferris rummaged through his pockets, “we could buy some supplies.”

“That sounds fun!” Then with a pause she added, “And it’s a good idea, of course.” She opened a small bag she carried with her, I have some too. We can all pitch in.”

“You go, Armadillomon and I will stay here and make sure nothing happens.”

“No, you’re coming with us,” Ruby grabbed Cody and started pulling him again. “Beside, if we’re going to be doing this Digimon thing together we should know each other.”

_ She’s right, but the portal- _

“Cody?”

Cody turned away from the new Digidestined and saw an old one. Izzy was standing there, his laptop tucked under one arm. 

_ The portal could close any time. We need to hurry. _

“Izzy, I promise I will tell you everything, but this portal could close and we need to be prepared. Gather the others and watch the portal, I’ll explain to everyone at once.” As he walked away, he turned back around and reidorated, “I promise.” 

First they went to an outdoors store. It was pretty straight forward, they bought a fairly large tent, five cheap sleeping bags, and backpacks to carry them in. They decided food was a top priority, so they went to a grocery store next, and they bought a fair amount of non-expiring food. Cody felt like they were forming the basis for a friendship, there were conversations, and some laughter. Ferris pushed the cart, Kalev was walking in front of the cart with a notebook keeping track of their funds, Mila was in charge of their list, including amendments. Cody and Ruby were getting things off the shelves and putting them in carts, though had to keep telling Ruby to put back nonessential things. When they went to check out, they hardly had any money to spare as they had planned, but now they ran into the problem of carrying the food.

Ferris looked at the bags, then his friends, then the checkout clerk, “How much for the cart?”

She hadn’t let them buy the cart, but between the grocery bags and their backpacks, they were able to carry the food. When they got back to the Digiport, it had gathered a crowd, but not of random people. At the portal were Digidestined, all of the Japan-based Digidestined, but to Cody’s dismay, they were split in two groups: the original Digidestined and the second generation, with TK and Kari standing between the groups.

_ Even now, we’re still fighting. _

It had been a year and nine months since the Digiports had been sealed, and while Tai was the only one who seemed actively angry at them, he had influenced the others and the teams had drifted apart. For the second time that day, Cody had to explain things, he made introductions, and showed them the new Digivices. 

“So we’re going back to the Digital World!” Yolei cheered, “I can’t wait to see Hawkmon again!”

“Yolei, we aren’t going,” Ken stepped in before she could get too excited.

“What? Why not?”

“Yeah, why not?” Davis echoed.

“We can’t.”

“Sure we can!” Davis and Yolei said at the same time.

“I mean we  _ can’t _ ,” Ken reached out to the portal, but rather than passing through like Kalev’s Digivice, his hand hit a barrier.

Cody spoke up again, “Ken’s right, it’s just like with us,” he gestured to his generation of Digidestined, “We were the new Digidestined and we were given responsibility. That’s happening again, but this time they’re the new Digidestined,” he waved his hand at the new members of the group. “And I was chosen to go with them.”

“Then you should get going.” Matt stepped away from the portal, clearing the way.

The rest followed suit, some of them adding words of encouragement as the new Digidestined walked past.

“You got this,” Sora said.

“Make sure to stay safe out there,” Joe added.

“Cody,” Yolei embraced him. “Show the new kids how it’s done.”

Kalev put his hand to the portal, where his Digivice was trying to get through back to him, his hand moved forward a little and the Digivce came through a little, they met halfway through and he and Otumon went through the rest of the Digiport with ease. There was a flash of light, and the edges of the portal began to leak data, the rift itself began to shrink.

Ferris tightened the straps on his back pack to hide his nervousness, “There and back again.” He looked at Turtumon, “Ready?” 

“Absolutely.”

He stepped through.

Ruby shifted from foot to foot, she was clearly nervous too, but she tried to hide it with excitedness, “Let’s go!” She sprinted through with Meomon, closing her eyes as she went through the portal.

Mila went through slowly, she looked over her shoulder and stopped before going through.

“No sense being upset,” Baomon had stopped with her, “You didn’t want him to go in the first place.” Then more gently, he added, “He’ll be safe here,” and led Mila through.

Armadillomon jumped out of the wagon and stretched next to Cody, “Ready, Cody?”

“Yes.” He started walking, but stopped when Davis yelled.

“Hold up!”

Cody turned around in time to see Davis pull off his goggles, “One of you will need these,” he tossed them to Cody.

“Who?”

Davis smiled and shook his head, “You’ll know.”

Cody pondered that for a few seconds and pocketed the goggles. Then he went through, the last thing he heard before the portal closed was Tai yell “Go get ‘em, Digidestined!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Off to the Digital World. Next time a certain phrase in the summary will start to make a lot more sense. This chapter didn’t have any action but the next one will, it’s also the last one that I can describe as set up, not entirely like these last few chapters, but after that it’s much more plot focused.


	5. The Mysterious Boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Digidestined enter the Digital World and are almost immediately confronted by danger.

**The Mysterious Boy**

Traveling through the Digiport felt different. Normally it felt crisp and precise, like it knew exactly where you were going. This time, it felt more rocky. Cody felt like he was being pulled and thrown around randomly. When he ended up in the Digital World, it felt like a violent shove and his feet hit the grassy ground hard. He looked up and smiled at the sight.

_ I’ve missed this place. _

“Does anyone else feel like their bones are shivering?” Mila groaned.

The Digidestined stood on a hill of green grass. Around them was a meadow with rivers winding through it stretching far into the distance. To their left, the sun rose illuminating a tall building that reminded Cody of Tō-ji, which was surrounded by smaller buildings of similar design. In the opposite direction of the buildings was a massive forest of dead trees. Around the meadow in every other direction were mountains, some of them towering into the clouds. 

“Woah,” Cody looked over to Ruby as she exclaimed, “this place is beautiful.”

“Yeah, welcome to my home,” Meomon announced.

Except, it wasn’t Meomon. She looked different and sounded slightly older. She was now on four legs, and very much looked like a normal cat, just minorly larger. She was still black, but there was more white than what was previously on her tail and muzzle, she now had a white stomach and paws, and the white fur on her muzzle extended between her green eyes with a black symbol right between them. 

“Um, did you get bigger?” Mila stared at the Digimon next to her.

Being larger was the actually the least noticeable change about him. He was now a sandy yellow color, huge amber claws on his front paws and matching fur on the tips of his ears and end of his tail, in addition to a small mane around his neck that extended down his belly. His face was ornate with ashy markings, two whisker-like markings on each side, rings around his eyes, and a rhombus shape on his forehead. 

“Oh. Yes, I Digivolved. I’m Fennmon now.” He introduced himself. 

“And I’m Pawmon!” The cat Digimon piped in.

“It is  _ so _ good to be back!” The former Otumon cheered. He actually more fit the idea of just being bigger. He was now made entirely of fire, his single eye was gone and now there were just lighter colored flames in the shape of angled eyes. Above them, there was a symbol that was hard to make out through the fire. He now had legs, and fully formed hands. His head’s flames flared up in a crown-like formation, which itself had two horns on it, also made of fire. “Call me Pyromon, and hope I never go back.”

“Careful, you’re touching the grass!” Kalev warned.

“Don’t worry, in this form I can control my temperature, see?” He reached out and placed his hand on Kalev.

Kalev didn’t yelp or pull back his arm, he just stared puzzled at his arm, “That doesn’t make any sense, how you can stay ignited if yo-”

“Like I said, your laws of physics don’t apply here.”

The Digivolved Turtumon didn’t seem as excited as the others to be Digivolve. He quietly rolled his shoulders and looked down at himself. He was about the same height as Pyromon and entirely made up of a black metal. Spaced throughout his body were glowing red energy markings. He had three sharp fingers, spiked kneecaps and shoulder pads, as well as three horns on his head, two angled backwards, and the center one facing straight up with a glowing red symbol on it. Most interesting of all was that there didn’t seem to be any gaps or hinges on him. He appeared to be solid metal like a statue, but when he moved, his joints seemed to be liquid, allowing him free movement without exposing any weaknesses. 

“Woah! That rules!” Ferris dropped into a crouch to look at Cutmon, “You look like a mecha!”

While the others were looking at their changed partners Cody took the goggles from his pocket to his backpack.

_ These could be hard to explain, and I don’t want them trying to compete for them. _

When the conversations about Digivolution stopped, they talked about where to go next. 

“We should climb a mountain and look around,” Kalev suggested.

_ That sounds familiar, I think one of the original Digidestined tried that. _

Ruby groaned, “Climb a whole mountain just to look around? No thank you.”

_ We’ll be doing a lot harder stuff than that. _

“I mean, we can see almost everything, it’s a flat field surrounded by mountains,” Mila shrugged. “If anything we should head towards the opening between them try to get out and see what else is out there.”

_ Just leave here? The Digi-port probably opened here for a reason. _

__ “I think that’s a good idea,” Ferris gestured to Mila, “there’s also those buildings over there, we might find help and shelter there.” He turned to Cody, “What do you think?”

“Me?” He wasn’t entirely used to being asked his thoughts on things. While his team, his old team, he corrected, had gotten better about not treating him as a child for being the youngest, he still often fought to get his voice heard.

“Yeah you,” Ruby nudged Cody. “You’ve been doing this longer than any of us.”

“Well, I think Ferris is right that we should seek out Digimon at the buildings, but I do not think we should leave this area. We were brought here for a reason. Learning the geography of our area is important but climbing a mountain could be dangerous, so doing it should be a last resort.”

“An excellent strategy,” a gravelly voice came from above, with it came gusts of wind starting and stopping on a steady rhythm. “You have excellent survival instincts, it’s a shame you won’t live long enough to use them.”

A scaly green Digimon hovered above the Digidestined, who rose to their feet. The Digimon appeared like a western interpretation of a dragon. 

“I will be rewarded greatly for this, another victory to add to my resume.” Despite his animalistic face, the Digimon’s words were clear.

Cody drew his Digivice, “Armadillomon?”

“I’m on it, Cody.” 

The Digivice became yellow and dark grey for a split second and a ball of light surrounded Armadillomon. Ankylomon grew out of the orb, he dropped slightly to the ground and began swinging his tail back and forth. The dragon Digimon landed a second later growling.

“I should have known you would make this difficult,” his horns began to glow, “but it won’t be enough, you will fall before me, Coredramon.”

The Rookie level Digimon began moving forward to stand with Ankylomon. Pyromon flexed his fingers and a fireball grew from a spark, Pawmon’s claws extended, Cutmon’s fingers merged into a single spike which began glowing with a red energy with small particles of it floating off, and Fennmon growled, baring his fangs.

“Wait, why don’t you Digivolve?” Ruby worryingly looked between each of the Rookie Digimon.

“This is as far as we go,” Fennmon said, still growling.

Coredramon let out one last roar and sprinted towards Ankylomon, bending down to lead with his horns. In response, Cody’s partner tucked his head and straightened his back legs so that Coredramon ran head first into his shell. The dragon recoiled, gripping his head in pain. Ankylomon took the opportunity to slam his Tail Hammer into Coredramon’s chest, he recoiled again, gasping. 

“I’m going to enjoy this more than I thought.”

_ That was a good hit, but he still seems so unbothered. _

__ Coredramon started flapping his wings.

“Don’t let him take off!” Cody yelled.

Fennmon responded first, his fur caught in a wind that seemed to only affect him, his piercing yellow eyes flashed and colorful flower petals appeared, each one covered in tiny needles, the wind picked them up and sent them towards Coredramon. A lot of them were blown away by the gusts created by Coredramon’s wing flaps, but the few that made it through scraped painfully across his scales. He growled in pain but there didn’t seem to be any real damage. He opened his mouth to spew green fire towards the weaker Digimon, Ankylomon leapt towards them, and turned his shell against the fire, turning himself into a shield. 

_ They’re pinned, if Ankylomon moves then the others would be in danger, but he can’t keep this up forever. The heat will get through his shell eventually.  _

Cutmon had apparently thought of a solution before he did. He rolled from under the Champion Digimon towards Coredramon, wincing as he was caught by the fire. He lept into the air towards Coredramon, his combined claw at the ready, but before he could strike he was grabbed by the Virus Digimon. 

“Pathetic.” Coredramon stopped his fire and began to squeeze his claws, Cutmon let out a strangled cry, struggling against his enemy’s grip. “You have a great power in you, why don’t you use it?” He brought Cutmon up to his red eyes, “You fear it? Show me.”

_ What kind of power could a Rookie Digimon have? _

Cutmon shook his head from side to side, in both denial and pain, “No.”

“Show me!” Coredramon roared, licks of fire coming out of his mouth, making Cutmon glow from the heat. 

No longer pinned by Coredramon’s attack, the other Digimon counter attacked. Pyromon threw a barrage of fire balls at him. He seemed barely affected by them, not even growling this time. Pawmon leapt towards Coredramon who simply batted her aside. Ankylomon bent his legs, and leapt into the air, higher than Coredramon, he then turned his shell down and fell spikes first towards the flying Digimon. Unfortunately Ankylomon was simply falling, Coredramon could fly and was able to easily avoid the attack.

“Is that the best you can do? The fabled Digidestined can’t even land a second blow on me.” He taunted, throwing Cutmon to the ground, “What did you hope to accomplish here if you can’t even beat me?”

“Perhaps we can lend a hand,” Two voices spoke in unison. Accompanying the voices was a heavy thump that caused the ground to shake. 

Cody turned around and saw a large green Digimon. It was mechanical with shoulder pads decorated with frowning faces. 

_ Who is that? _

__ The Digimon raised his arm and pointed his fist at Coredramon, “Leave now, or we will have no choice but to delete you.”

“Who do you think you are?” Coredramon demanded, more fire spewing from his mouth.

“I am MegaGargomon.”

“I am in charge of ensuring this area is submissive, and you will be the one getting deleted,” Coredramon’s horns began to glow again.

There was a bang, and a hole appeared in his chest.

It was almost too fast to see, but MegaGargomon had fired a single shot from his wrist cuffs into the dragon Digimon. Now he began to glow and shrink, splitting into two beams of light, one turning into a green rabbit Digimon, the other into a black-haired human boy. 

_ Were they one and the same? Like DNA Digivolution with a human and Digimon? _

__ The hole in Coredramon grew, small particles of data floating into the sky. Ruby’s face paled. She covered her mouth and turned away. The rest of them just stared, the Digimon who once seemed so threatening now lay on the ground dying. The mysterious boy who had come out of a Digimon seemed remorseful, but not especially bothered. 

“We need to talk,” he said gently as Coredramon finished disintegrating. 

“Di- did we kill him?” Ferris stammered, his face had gone pale as well.

“We had to,” Kalev tried to present logic, but his voice was shaky, “it was him or us.”

“You didn’t kill anyone,” the boy stepped in front of the group, “we did. His data will reformat, and he’ll return to life,” 

“Digimon don’t really die,” Cody offered his own explanation. “When they’re defeated they turn into data which will change and become a Baby again,” he told them, though he still seemed uncomfortable.

“Momentai,” the rabbit Digimon said cheerfully.

Cody turned to the boy, “Thank you for your help, my name is Cody.”

The boy smiled knowling, “Yes, I know. My name is Henry.”

“Are you one of us?” Mila tore her eyes away from the spot that Coredramon had laid.

“Of sorts,” he raised his hand to stop further questions. “I don’t have a lot of time, but I do have a warning for you. I’m from a different world, a different human world which itself has a different Digital World, and there’s this Digimon traveling from dimension to dimension, taking power from each one. He started in mine, he stole a Digivice from a friend of mine named Jeri and is changing it, making a powerful new Dark Digivice.”

Cody sucked in a breath.

_ A Dark Digivice like Ken’s. That’s bad news. _

__ “So I’m here to ensure you have a fighting chance,” he reached into his pocket and pulled out something that was clearly a Digivice, but one different than any Cody had seen. With his other hand, he produced a green card, with a stylized ‘D’ on it, a dinosaur sticking its head through the letter.

“Digimodify!” He swiped the card through a slot on the Digivice, “Power transfer, activate!”

Five beams of light flew from Henry’s Digivice into those of the Digidestined, the Digivices flashed their colors again and morphed, a small slotted piece grew from the side of the Digivice, near where the classic Digivice shape was. 

“You should now have a Digimon analyzer in your Digivices, and these will help, especially until you can all Digivolve,” he extended his hand, holding several small rectangular items, wrapped in foil.

Each of the Digidestined took one, and Henry frowned at the extra, “There was supposed to be six of you.”

Cody’s heat sank.

“We de- I decid- I thought it would be best if…” Mila drifted off, looking towards the ground.

“We’re out of time,” Henry and his partner started becoming transparent, the foil hit the ground. “Good luck.”

“Momentai.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now things are really getting into action. The real plot is coming together. A Digimon has stolen Jeri’s Digivice and is scouring the Multiverse for more power. But what about Titamon’s master? Could they be one and the same? Who knows? Well, I do. At some point I’m going to stop being surprised that all these chapters are this long, but it is not this day. Also I’m mostly ignoring things that character cry out in the anime, you’ll notice Fennmon didn’t yell “Desert Bloom” when he attacked, and no one announced their Digivolutions in the “Otumon Digivolve to! Pyromon!” way. Personally I don’t think that works well in a written form, hell at times it doesn’t always work well in the anime. The exception to that rule is things that seem to require a form of voice activation, Digimodify is one of these things. Also kind of irrelevant but I think this is the first I've dropped the chapter title in the text itself, Team doesn’t count, because that’s a one word title. Some might come up again because Battle of the Dark Ocean is a fairly easy way to refer to the events of chapter one.


	6. Team Building

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group splits up to prepare for their first night in the Digital World.

**Team Building**

“Make sure the fire has room to breathe, it needs oxygen,” Kalev was instructing Ruby on how to build a fire. They had stopped for the night when the sun had gone behind the mountains and it had gotten too dark to keep going on the uneven ground safely. They were probably about an eighth of the way to the buildings. 

Ruby looked up at him, sighing as she stacked the branches into a grid shape, “Maybe you should do this, if you're going to backseat drive the whole fire-building process.” 

The group had split in up to gather things for the night. Kalev, Ruby, and their partners had stayed back to keep an eye on their supplies while Cody and Armadillomon had gone to get firewood. Ferris, Cutmon, Mila, and Fennmon went to see if they could find food so they wouldn’t have to use their supplies yet, or at least use less. The logic to the way they were split was sound, two Rookie Digimon together, and the only lone Digimon could reach Champion level. Cody and Armadillomon had gotten back before the others, but against Kalev’s suggestion, had gone to look for them.

_ And now if they come back without Cody they’ll want to go look for him, and we’ll be stuck in a cycle. _

__ “How’s this look?” 

Kalev looked at the wood stack and nodded his approval, “Looks good.”

Pyromon reached his hand into the center of the pile, snapped his fingers, and the fire roared to life.

“Nice.” Pawmon said to no one in particular.

Kalev looked out in the direction that the others had gone. Normally he made quick glances, but the fire had ruined his night vision, so he had to look longer for his eyes to adjust, which Ruby noticed.

“Think we should go look for them?”

He wanted to say yes, he really did. He was worried about his friends.

He sighed, “No, if they come back while we’re gone, they’ll leave again to look for us and we’ll never find each other.”

“Wow, you really think things through don’t you?” Pyromon looked over to Kalev, causing the shadows to shift.

Ruby laughed, “I was gonna say the same thing.”

“Guess what we found!” Ferris’s voice rang out as he walked into the light of the fire as if nothing happened. In his arms was his hoodie, zipped up and tied in a way so that it could be used as a bag. Next to him, Cutmon carried his hat, small round objects overflowing from it.

_ Thank Goodness. _

__ Kalev and Ruby stood up, Pawmon had drifted to sleep, but Pyromon shifted to look at Ferris and Cutmon, as the rest of them came into view, each one carrying either a makeshift bag, or an armful of the purple shapes. 

“Where were you?” Ruby said with an accusatory tone, “We were so worried.”

“We were getting food,” Cutmon set down Ferris’s hat, now that it was closer in the light Kalev could see that it was some sort of fruit. It had purple skin and a green stem emerging from the center of four thick leaves. Armadillomon and Fennmon didn’t really have a way to carry a lot of fruit, but each Digimon held one fruit in his mouth. 

“You know what she meant,” Kalev cut in, “what took so long?”

Now that they were in the fire it was apparent that they were covered in dirt and grass, Mila especially, in addition she had messier hair than the others.

She averted her gaze and muttered, “I fell in a hole.”

Kalev was taken aback, “What?”

She resumed eye contact with him and yelled, “I fell in a hole!”

He snorted, and then started laughing, covering his mouth and trying to suppress it. It was a futile effort and soon he was full body laughing. It was hard to hear Ruby over Kalev, but she was snickering as well. 

Ruby turned to Ferris, and between snickers said, “Did you fall in too?” Then resumed laughing.

“No!” Ferris denied, “I climbed down.”

“Oh yeah, and you did a mighty good job of it, too.” Mila deflected some of the attention to Ferris, with a growing smile, “I especially liked the part where you jumped face-first into the dirt as soon as you got halfway down.” 

Soon most of them were laughing, Cody only cracked a smile as he looked at them, but they did wake up Pawmon, who looked around with a bewildered look on her face. Ruby noticed Cody’s silence and pointed at him.

“That is unexceptable! Everyone sit down, we’re going to become friends tonight.”

_ And here I thought that was already happening organically. _

__ They sat in a circle around the fire as the laughter died out. Ruby looked around the circle before settling her eyes on Cody. 

“Cody, you’re the reason we’re doing this, Truth or Dare?”

There were some groans and some giggles.

He hesitated, “Truth.”

“I’ve seen you smile, like, once. What’s your deal?”

_ Oh, great. _

__ He looked puzzled for a second, “I just don’t like to overreact, and to think things through.”

“Now you go,” Ruby reminded him after a few seconds of silence.

He kept looking at Ruby, “Truth or Dare.”

“Oh, dare,” she rubbed her hands together.

“Be the first one to eat one of the fruit.”

_ What if they’re poisonous? _

__ As if reading his mind, Armadillomon spoke, “Don’t worry about it, they’re not poison.”

As Ruby sunk her teeth into it, her face screwed up and she slowly pulled the fruit away from her mouth. She chewed and swallowed, “It’s nasty,” she decided.

Cutmon sliced through the fruit, exposing a white structure inside, “You’re meant to eat the inside, not the skin.” Despite having no visible mouth, he brought the fruit to his face, and with a slurp, sucked the white contents into him.

The Digimon who could began slicing open the fruit, passing them around the group until everyone was eating.

“Ferris,” he looked up from his fruit, the inside of which was quite good, “Truth or Dare,” Ruby finished.

“Truth,” Ferris answered quickly.

“Why do you keep your hair so long?”

Ferris looked surprised, and a little concerned, Kalev noticed.

“Well,” Ferris shrugged nonchalantly, “my parents were never the most thrilled about me wanting long hair. It’s not that they were against the idea, I think they just thought that I only wanted long hair because I didn’t like the act of getting my hair cut.” He shrugged again, “So when they… when they died, my hair became the one thing I could control, so I let it grow.”

Cody’s eyes widened and the Digimon let out various surprised sounds. Ferris’s eyes seemed darker, and he stared into the fire. 

“I just lost my father, but it was hard,” Cody added sympathetically, Ferris made eye contact with him, “I can’t imagine what it must have been for you.”

“Ferris, I’m sorry, I didn’t me-”

He looked up, suddenly smiling again, “It’s okay, it was a long time ago. My turn right?

“Uh, right.”

“Actually, how about a different game,” Ferris raised his hand in the air, stretching five fingers. “Never Have I Ever, everytime you’ve done something you lower a finger, whoever runs out of fingers loses.”

Cutmon raised his hand, “I feel like I’m at a disadvantage.”

Fennmon looked at his paws, “A lot of us are.”

“Just keep track of five,” Kalev suggested.

“Alright,” Ferris started, “Never Have I Ever been a Digital Monster.”

“What?” Pyromon yelled.

“That’s hardly fair!” Fennmon complained, begrudgingly drawing a line in the sand.

Cutmon was next in the circle, he had all the fingers one on hand held up, plus one on the other, “Never Have I Ever had hair in the last hour.”

Pyromon chortled, “Good one.”

Kalev pondered and said, “Never Have I Ever fallen in a hole in the Digital World.”

Mila sighed and lowered a finger, “Aren’t we supposed to be learning new things about each other or something?”

“Ferris,” Ruby said. “Lower your finger.”

“If I hadn’t started climbing down I wouldn’t have been in the hole!”   
  
“You still fell,” Kalev reached over to Ferris and forcibly lowered a finger.

“What about them?” Ferris gestured to the Digimon, none of which had done anything. “Are you telling me that never in any of your lives have you fallen in hole?”

Pawmon made a third mark on the ground, and Armadillomon made a second one. 

They played for a while longer and stayed up for a few more hours, going to sleep at various times: Ferris went to sleep first, Cutmon went with him, Ruby went not long after, then Pyromon, lastly Mila, Fennmon, and Pawmon left at around the same time. It was just Kalev and Cody, they had stopped talking, just sitting across from each other at the fire. 

_ It’s late, I should get some sleep, we’ll probably get moving early tomorrow. _

__ “We got attacked already today, one of us should keep watch,” Kalev said as he stood up.

“You go get some sleep, I’ll wake you up in an hour or so.”

“Thank you.” 

He didn’t have to walk far before he slid into his sleeping bag and laid his head down, feeling the gentle heat coming from Pyromon who also had a hand resting in the fire pit to keep it lit. He looked around the group of his sleeping friends, for as much as he had thought that Ruby’s game was unnecessary, he did feel closer to her and Cody. Immediately next to him was Ferris, Cutmon sitting next to his partner’s head, his eyes closed and snoring lightly, past that was Mila, Fennmon resting his head on top of Mila. Cody stayed awake at the fire, Armadillomon sleeping next to his partner. On Kalev’s other side was Ruby, the only one actually sharing a sleeping bag with her partner, her head next to Pawmon’s. He felt his eyelids grow heavy, he blinked his eyes a few times, and rolled onto his back looking at the unfamiliar stars, all thoughts about Coredramon slipping his mind.

_ Today was a good day. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Learning more about our characters in the shortest chapter I’ve written for this fic, but it’s still longer than anything from Combaticons: Earth Base 1. Don’t worry this didn’t start a trend of chapters getting shorter, the next one is back to normal-ish length.


	7. Digivolvution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Digidestined’s first full day in the Digital World is just as eventful as the previous day, though it goes much worse.

**Digivolution**

Ruby was asleep. The kind of sleep where she was acutely aware of what was happening around her in the waking world. There was movement, quiet talking, and rustling. She felt a hand rest on her shoulder, gently shaking her.

“Ruby.”

She forced her eyes open and saw Cody knelt down in front of her, “Wake up, we need to get moving.”

“Just a little longer,” she said as she blinked her eyes drowsily. She hadn’t slept well the night before, as she felt guilty about what she made Ferris say during Truth or Dare.

“Ruby, everyone else is awake and almost everyone went to sleep before you did,” his words were spoken harshly.

She groaned and sat up straight, rubbing her eyes. As she opened them again, she saw that, sure enough, everyone else was already up and moving. She blew hair out of her face and did her best to quickly pull the rest out of her face.

_ Aw beans. _

__

“Hey, did anyone bring a hair brush?”

Normally this probably wouldn’t be a priority, but her hair was messed up to an extent where it was in her face and wouldn’t stay back.

“I do,” Ferris was in the middle of packing his backpack, but stopped to pull out a small black rectangle. “Heads up,” he clumsily tossed it to Ruby who managed to catch it.

_ He doesn’t seem mad. _

She brought up to her face and examined it; it had two black plastic pieces connected by a large circle, in between the two pieces she could see bristles. She flipped it open and it became much clearer that it was a hairbrush. The handle itself had stiff plastic prongs on it, and she realized that it was a comb. She ran it through her hair quickly, making it just neat enough to not be bothersome. She was ready soon enough and the Digidestined were on their way again.

“Tuesday, June twenty-first,” Ferris said after a few minutes of walking.

“What was that?” Kalev called back from the front of the group.

“Today is Tuesday, June twenty-first,” Ferris repeated. “I figured if we’re going on an extraordinary adventure we should at least keep track of a little ordinary, so I’m keeping track of the days.”

“That’s a pretty good idea,” Kalev knitted his brow, “I wonder how long we’ll be here?”

_ That’s a good question. _

A shadow fell over the group, a near perfect oval. They stopped, Mila took a few more steps and almost ran into Kalev before she noticed. Ruby looked up. Normally she would have had to shield her eyes, but the sun was being blocked by a large brown shape. It was mostly an oval. Coming off of the sides in a symmetrical fashion were two large turbines, in front of them were metal arms with silver rings on the wrists. The front of it ended in a giant point, and on the opposite end, fins like that on an airplane.

“Woah,” Ferris was also looking up, his mouth agape.

As he finished talking, six silver tubes rotated to aim at the ground. Fire flared from the tubes and the ground near the group exploded. There was a clicking sound and the guns began firing again. The ground burst into flames again, throwing up dirt. So far, their attacker had yet to hit anyone, but the ground both left and right of the group was covered in holes. 

“Run!” Ruby yelled.

“Not a terrible idea,” Fennmon replied, picking up speed.

The Digimon above them adjusted accordingly and began spinning so that the ground was exploding on all sides around the Digidestined. 

_ What do we do? They’re too high up to fight, just like Coredramon. Maybe someone will save us again. _

__ “Digiarmor energize!”

Ruby turned around to see Cody holding his Digivice, and where Armadillomon had been standing, a large yellow Digimon stood, his yellow armor covered in purple symbols. He stood on two legs and had four arms, two short ones and two longer ones ending in drills.

“Hold on everyone!” The new Digimon yelled, his arms and drill nose burrowed into the ground, making a cave large enough for them all to fit through. Once they were down a few meters, they began going sideways to get away from their attacker.

“This is a bad idea!” Kalev yelled over the whirling drills.

“Don’t worry, Blimpmon won’t fit down here,” the Digivolved Armadillomon had to yell even louder.

_ Blimpmon, that must be the jerk who jumped us. _

__ “That’s not what I mean,” the cave shook and dirt particles began to fall. “I’m worried about him collapsing the cave on us!”

The shaking started growing weaker, and he stopped drilling, “I think he’s leaving.”

“Are you sure, Digmon?” Ferris asked.

_ Digmon? How does he know that? Wait, is that how he and Mila got out of the hole? _

__ Despite the perilous situation they were in, Ruby struggled not to laugh. Eventually the shaking stopped, and after that, the sound of explosions faded. They spent several hours underground. They made sure Blimpmon was truly gone before they went back to the surface and kept moving towards the buildings, but it had only been a few hours before he attacked again. This time, they could see more of him. While he was mostly covered in metal, there were several points where there wasn’t any, just a cloth-like material. On top of his body was a small dome with eyes inside, glaring at the Digidestined as the two cylinders behind his head fired two large metal balls. They slammed into Ankylomon’s shell, his knees flexed to absorb the impact, and he turned to face the oncoming Digimon. 

_ I guess we’re doing this. _

Blimpmon let out a pillar of steam from near his head and began moving faster, his hands clenched into fists. As he got closer, Ankylomon leaned forward onto his front legs and lifted his back half straight up into the air vertically. 

_ That’s pretty impressive. _

__ Ankylomon began to fall with his back heading towards the ground, his Tail Hammer hitting the spike on Blimpmon’s nose. The attack drove it into the ground, pinning Blimpmon. His hands pressed against the ground, trying to push backwards, but he was truly stuck. Ankylomon was trapped, too. He was stuck on his back, and in order to free himself, he Degenerated into Armadillomon, who Cody could get back on his feet. Cody drew his Digivice to help his partner Digivolve to finish the fight, but before he could, Blimpmon began firing again. Cody and Armadillomon were at an angle where they couldn’t get hit directly, but a shot did land close to them and the explosion of helium knocked Cody backwards, his Digivice going in the opposite direction. It landed in the crater that Blimpmon had just created. Blimpmon’s next shot hit the same spot. A green glow emerged from the dust cloud to signify that the Digivice’s shield had worked. Cody got to his feet and he and Armadillomon began to run, the Digivice floating back into Cody’s hand as they went.

“That was cool, Armadillomon!” Ruby panted.

“I just wish we would’a been able to finish the job, but I just couldn’t get close.”

That night, they had Digmon drill them another cave so that Pyromon’s glow wouldn’t give them away, since they were being actively hunted. They didn’t gather firewood, so Pyromon heated himself up to the temperature of an actual fire and slept between them. All of the other Digimon were in the sleeping bags with their partners, except for Cutmon, whose partner was on first watch. Ruby could feel Pawmon’s even, rhythmic breathing against her chest, but couldn’t reach that serenity herself. She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. There wasn’t anything extraordinary about it, but it was, in a way, something to do.

_ Why aren’t I tired? We’ve been running all day. _

__ The adrenaline of the day was still coursing through her, keeping her awake. She rolled over again, putting her back to Pawmon, who muttered something in her sleep and shifted.

_ I’m going to wake her up at this rate.  _

__ She tried to stay still, but quickly became uncomfortable and wanted to roll over again, so she just decided to get up. Careful not to disturb her partner, she scooted out of the sleeping bag, wincing when the zipper started to come undone and made a somewhat loud sound. She stopped and looked at Pawmon who remained asleep, so she finished climbing out. The ground was cold on her feet, but not to a level of discomfort so she didn’t bother to put on her shoes. Quietly, she slipped away from the group, getting colder as she moved away from Pyromon. The tunnel Digmon had made turned sharply to the right before angling up, Ferris sat there on the slope towards the exit. His hoodie was zipped up and he tossed his Digivice from hand to hand.

“Can’t sleep?”

“No, what about you? Staying awake well enough?”

“Yeah,” he caught his Digivice and kept it in that hand. “There’s a reason I volunteered to take first watch.” 

_ Just say something to him. _

There were a few seconds of silence before Ruby spoke, “Hey, I’m sorry about last night, I don’t know about… that part of your par- I didn’t know that was why you had long hair.”

“Like I said, it’s not that big of a deal,” he smiled at her. “Seriously, that’s far from the worst thing to happen that day.”

They talked for a few more minutes, but Ruby was finally feeling the day catching up to her, so she went to sleep, snuggling up to Pawmon. Her watch a few hours later was uneventful, no sign of anything dangerous. She did see a shooting star, though. She woke up on her own in the morning, and everyone aside from Pawmon and Cody were asleep. She got out of her sleeping bag much faster this time, as it was easier without having to worry about waking Pawmon. She pulled on her socks and slipped on her shoes, not bothering to tie them yet. 

“Quiet night?” She asked Cody.

_ Why did I ask that? Obviously it was a quiet night. _

__ “No trouble,” Cody replied, “I was thinking about waking up the others soon.”

Pawmon ran into the area before Ruby could suggest letting them sleep, “He’s here! Blimpmon’s here!” 

Kalev sat up, “He is?”

“Yes! Everyone wake up!” Pawmon jumped on Mila, who woke up with a sharp exhale, the impact near her woke up Fennmon, who started sniffing the air.

Cutmon crawled out of his and Ferris’s sleeping bag, and as he did, his knees brushed against a rock and threw sparks with a loud scrape. Ferris sat up, rubbed his eyes, and looked around. 

“We can’t keep running, we should stand and fight,” Cutmon merged his fingers into one blade.

“I agree,” Fennmon flexed his claws, his lips curling back to show his teeth.

Cody addressed the rest of them, “We held our own against him once, I think we can do it again, but if you don’t want to, I won’t ask you to fight.”

No one said anything, but their stances showed that they wanted to fight. They were tired of running.

“Okay then,” Cody smiled.

“If we’re doing this, we need a plan,” Kalev pointed out. “Did you notice that he isn’t entirely covered in metal? We hit him there.”

It was a simple plan, but that left room to change it as necessary, and before long, they were ready. Everyone but Cody and Armadillomon moved to the tunnel exit where Blimpmon was looking straight at them. He hovered midair, glaring at them. Ruby gulped as she saw the cannons on top of his body. A cannonball appeared in each one and began moving backwards down the barrel as he prepared to fire. In that instant, Digmon erupted from the ground behind Blimpmon. He crossed his arms and when he threw them open, the drills on his hands flew through the air. He may have waited too long, though, because Blimpmon was able to rotate the cannons on his side and fire on the drills, knocking them out of the air. One of the drills didn’t simply fall. It got knocked sideways but still stayed in the air, flying towards Ruby who had crested the hill out of the tunnels. 

She let out a scream and shielded her face, but before it hit her, she heard someone yell, “No!”

The drill never hit her. She saw a flash of light through her shielded face, she felt something vibrating in her pocket, and when she lowered her arms, she saw a large tawny cat Digimon standing in front of her. The Digimon had a black mane framing her face and identically colored tufts of fur on her ears, tail tip, and front ankles.

“Pawmon?”

The Digimon turned around, spitting the drill out of her mouth, “I’m Clawmon, now.”

_ Clawmon. _

__ “Go get ‘em.”

Clawmon whirled around to face Blimpmon, who continued to fight Digmon. She lowered herself to the ground, her ears flattening, and her tail slowly stilled. She lept, flying through the air, her front legs extended and claws reached out. They buried into Blimpmon’s exposed fabric, hisses of air accompanied by data jetted out. Clawmon began to slide down, creating long rips in the fabric. She went down until she reached a point just above his propellers, then she braced her rear legs against the metal and pushed back, landing on the ground. Blimpmon began to deflate, turning to the side and lowering towards the ground.

Her yellow eyes suddenly flashed white and she roared. Not long after, a beam of white energy erupted from her mouth, it rammed into Blimpmon’s side, tearing through it completely and coming out the other side. His eyes widened and he exploded into a cloud of data. The Digidestined averted their eyes and Ruby shuddered.

Clawmon bounded over to her partner, and lowered her head to be on the same level as Ruby’s. 

“You did it,” Ruby said softly, still shaken from Blimpmon’s death.

“We did it,” Clawmon gently headbutted her. “I wouldn’t have Digivolved without you.”

Ruby reached out and put her hand on Clawmon’s head, feeling her fur get displaced, Clawmon closed her eyes and purred.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We’re falling into a more traditional Digimon formula, for now at least. Anyways, I was wrong about chapter length, what a surprise. A few days of a timeskip before the next chapter takes place, I do my best to include the date from Ferris when I can, but there isn’t always a place where it fits in.


	8. Stranded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Digidestined get their spirits broken when the reality of their situation settles in on them.

**Stranded**

Ferris’s feet hurt and his shoulders were sore from always carrying a backpack. He wasn’t happy. He missed home, he missed his foster family. Cutmon walked next to him, his metal feet occasionally making a loud ding when he hit a rock. Still, he didn’t complain. He really didn’t want to be that guy.

“Over here!” Cody called.

They hadn’t had any trouble since Blimpmon, but the days were still catching up with them. People were getting tired and they were walking spread out. Cody and Armadillomon were in the lead, Ruby and Pawmon following behind them. Ferris shook his head at that.

_ Ruby always has this near infinite supply of energy, _

The rest of them were bunched together, but jogged up to the front when Cody called. They found him crouched in front of a large, blocky TV; two antennas came from the top, angled away from each other.

“Hey, think this thing gets…?” Ferris trailed off when he realized that he didn’t actually have a good joke to finish. “Never mind.” He crouched next to Cody.

“I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up,” Cody said quietly. “But this could be our way home.”

Ferris’s breathing stopped for a second, “Home?”

Kalev leaned forward, “How?”

“When I was first in the Digital World, we could leave nearly whenever we wanted by using these.”

“And come back?” Kalev asked squinting.

“Yes.”

“Then we might as well try. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen? We’ve already been here, right?” Ruby asked rhetorically.

“Long time,” Mila muttered.

“In that case, everyone get close.” Cody extended his hand while holding his Digivice, “Digiport Open.”

Nothing happened and Ferris’s heart sank.

_ No. _

Ferris clenched his fist and lowered all the way to the ground. He felt a small cold pressure on his back and he turned around to see Cutmon.

“You good?”

He nodded and stood up again. They continued to walk until it got dark and cold. They were nearing the buildings and probably could have gotten there if they really pushed, but they didn’t. The mood was definitely more somber as they set up the tent for the first time. There weren’t any fun conversations or games at dinner and they went to sleep without a word. Ferris didn’t sleep well, he stayed asleep the whole time, but it wasn’t deep. So when Ruby woke him up, he wasn’t thrilled.

“Alright, your turn,” Ruby yawned, “I don’t think I can stay awake any longer.”

She wasn’t hyperbolizing. Almost as soon as she was in her sleeping bag, she was asleep. Ferris pulled on his shoes and sloppily tied them before unzipping the tent door and stepping out, closing it behind him. He sits on a stone rock, grumbling at its uncomfortable nature. He felt himself start to drift off in spite of the rock, so he stood up and paced around the tent and sat back down when he was done. This time on the ground, leaning against the rock. He brought his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around his legs for warmth. 

Suddenly he felt sunlight on his face, and slowly opened his eyes. He looked around slowly and quickly jumped up.

_ Crap. _

The sun was barely over the horizon. No one was outside of the tent, and since no one had caught him, it was likely that no one would know. That meant he could get away with it. No one would have to know that he was the first person to fall asleep while on watch.

_ Am I the first one? Maybe someone else did but just had the same thought process as me. _

He snuck into the tent, lifted the flap and-

_ Oh no. _

He had zipped up the tent when he left, he knew that. In fact, he was certain of it, and no one left while he was awake. Which meant either someone had woken up and let him sleep while on watch, or someone had gone into the tent. 

He knew the first one wouldn’t happen, which left him worried.

He went to open his backpack and found it wasn’t there. He looked around wildly and saw that no one had backpacks near their sleeping bags.

“No, no, no, no.” He said, before raising his voice, “Everybody up! Our stuff is gone!”

The next several minutes were chaos. People searching desperately around the tent despite the fact that it was clear it was nowhere to be found.

“What happened?” Mila said quietly.

No one answered for a few seconds before Ferris stammered, “I fell asleep while on watch.” 

He suddenly felt all eyes on him, they must not have realized who was to blame until they slowed down. 

“You fell asleep?” Mila spit out. She put her hands to her head in frustration, grabbing fistfuls of her hair, “We just- No, we LITERALLY just found out that we can’t leave, and you decide to take a nap while keeping watch!”

Ferris winced, casting his eyes to the ground.

“Lucky that’s all that happened!” She continued, “What if someone like Blimpmon came around and found us all asleep? What do you think would have happened?”

“Mila, you’ve proved your point,” Cody said softly. He was angry, too, Ferris could tell, but he wasn’t yelling at him. He was even defending him. “Yelling won’t help now.”

Mila huffed and turned away, bending over to enter the tent.

_ She’ll get over it. _

__

He looked into the tent and saw her angrily grumbling as she put her sleeping bag into pouch configuration.

__ _ I hope. _

__ “Guys, check this out,” Kalev broke the silence and the others moved to see what he was looking at. 

He stood over a large footprint with three large claws.

“There’s more,” he pointed ahead. “They lead to the east.”

“How did something this big get into our tent?” Ruby asked, “I mean, it’s way too big to fit inside, even we can’t stand up straight in the tent. Maybe it just reached inside? It might have long enough arms.” She nodded to herself, “That has to be it.”

“Or,” Kalev suggested, “there was more than one. We don’t leave footprints, something our size,” he gestured to Pyromon, “or smaller wouldn’t leave them either.” 

“So we follow them,” Ferris said, taking initiative, “and get it back.”

“I think you're skipping a few import steps,” Kalev chewed his lip. “But in theory, it could work.”

Pyromon flared up, “Then let's get going!”

They didn’t even have to convince the others, as everyone was more than happy to get their supplies back. They rolled the tent itself up around its support pikes and alternated carrying. The Digidestined each carried their own sleeping bags in their pouch modes slung over their shoulders and they slapped awkwardly against their legs. Despite the unanimous decision, everyone was quiet. There was clearly still anger at Ferris, who himself wasn’t in the best of moods.

“So, Ferris,” Ruby said, trying to break the newly formed ice and return a sense of their new normality. “What day is it?”

“Sunday,” Ferris said shortly.

“Sunday what?”

_ Take a hint. _

__ “Sunday, June twenty-sixth,” he snapped.

“Okay,” she said, finally picking up on his tone.

They passed under an archway with the same architecture type as the building they were heading towards and it became clear where the tracks were leading. 

Kalev was the first to notice, “The place we’ve been trying to get to is the home of the Digimon who stole from us.” He shook his head, “Maybe heading towards the first sign of civilization wasn’t the best course of action.”

“We didn’t have a better option,” Cody comforted Kalev.

“Halt!” A voice yelled from behind them.

Ferris turned and saw a gold and red metal Digimon. He held a katana in each hand, and a blue cape fluttered behind him. 

“I am Grademon, and you are trespassing.”

“Trespassing?” Ruby said incredulously. 

Cody put a hand on her shoulder before she could speak again. He pulled her backwards a little and whispered, “Don’t.” He then slowly walked towards Grademon holding his hands up in a placating movement, “We come in peace,” he said gently.

“Bah-weep-graaaahnah wheep ni ni bong,” Ferris said as he mimicked Cody’s gesture of peace.

Cody shot him a look that read ‘stop talking now,’ Kalev snorted in laughter, and everyone else just looked confused.

“Oh. I’m glad at least someone is finding this funny,” Mila said with an unfriendly smile. 

_ Okay, no jokes yet. _

Cody continued, “Our supplies were stolen. We found footprints that we believe belong to the thief and followed them here.”

Understanding dawned in the Digimon's eyes, “Come with me.”

He walked past them, his cape smacking the Digidestined as he went.

“What if it’s a trick?” Kalev warned.

“Then we fight our way out,” Pawmon offered, “Clawmon would like to come out and play again.”

“That’s a bad idea,” Kalev was still skeptical. “We don’t know how many there are.”

Fennmon shrugged, “It is either risk die fighting in there or starve to death for sure.”

Inside, there was a padded mat on top of a sand floor with the rest of the building laid out in square patterns. The ceiling was high and there were several indoor balconies overlooking the room. The roof of the room wasn’t high enough to be the roof of the entire building, so Ferris assumed there were more floors above it. On the other end of the room was a chair, it was padded but simple. They were led around the mat where two Digimon were fighting: one of them was a light blue-skinned Digimon with green ropes across their torso who appeared to be wearing grey jeans. Their red eyes darted away from the fight for a second to watch the Digidestined, widening for a second before returning to the battle at hand. They raised two wood-covered fists holding fashioned wood poles and struck at their opponent.

“Young humans,” an elderly voice called to them, pulling Ferris’s attention to a small figure in the chair. “I’m glad to see the Digidestined have returned, even if it’s not necessarily the same Digidestined.” 

“Have you met our predecessors?” Cody asked.

_ So she didn’t meet him or his team. _

__ “No, but there are many who know of the Digidestined,” she sighed. “But I have been rude. I am Babamon, and these are my warriors.” She stood up and grabbed a broom, using it as a cane as she walked towards a red curtain behind her, “And now an apology is in order.” She pulled back the curtain to reveal all of their supplies. “When I told my warriors of your presence, Yaksamon desperately wanted to fight you, so he engineered a plan to lure you here. Yaksamon!”

The light blue Digimon from the mat stopped fighting and approached the group, “You must be the Digidestined!” His voice was youthful and excited, “It’s an honor,” he bowed.

Mila raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything.

Ruby put a hand on her hip, “You just wanted to meet us? You should have just talked to us.”

“No!” He straightened, “Meeting you isn’t enough, we needed to fight! A real fight, with stakes! If one of you wins, you get all your supplies back, if I win I keep your supplies.”

“Deal,” Ferris didn’t hesitate.

“Now hold on a second,” Kalev said. “Let’s think about this.”

“I lost the supplies, it only makes sense for one of us to get it back.”

“Me?” Cutmon asked.

“Him.”

“Let’s think about this logically,” Kalev repeated, putting emphasis on the ‘logically’, “Cutmon can’t even Digivolve.”

“All the better,” Babamon said as she scooted back into her chair. 

“I’ll do it,” Cutmon answered.

“Hol’ on-” Armadillomon started.

“Once a challenge is accepted it cannot be denied or transferred,” Yaksamon interrupted.

“Let us begin!” Babamon yelled. From all sides of the room small, bipedal drums filed into the room banging their own heads and surrounding the entire perimeter of the mat.

Yaksamon dashed to the other side of the mat, entering a ready position with one foot off of the ground, one sword held above his head, and the other sword held towards the ground. Cutmon stepped onto the mat, stretching before just standing there.

“The Dondokomon will beat a rhythm, it will speed up before stopping, that is when you will begin. Once the fight starts, the music will begin again, so don’t let it distract you,” Babamon explained the rules to Cutmon.

“Got it.” 

The only sound in the room was the drumbeats. 

Ferris swallows.

They speed up.

Cutmon closes his fingers into a claw.

Still gaining speed.

A red energy emerges from Cutmon’s claw.

They stop.

Yaksamon leaps across the mat, his leg propelling him far enough so that he could slam one of his bokuto down on Cutmon. Cutmon fell to the ground and rolled to the side to avoid Yaksamon’s follow up attack, only for his other bokuto to hit the ground next to him. They both came back up and were brought down together onto Cutmon, who crossed his arms to block the attack.

“Stop holding back,” Yaksamon snapped.

He raised his bokuto again and brought them down repeatedly, dull thuds ringing throughout the room. Cutmon growled and his arms morphed three blades from his forearms that surrounded the bokuto. He jerks his arms to the side, one of the weapons snaps in half, the other is merely forced backwards. 

“Yeah!” Ferris cheered, “Don’t let up.”

Yaksamon kicked the broken end of his weapon aside and smiled, “Finally.”

Cutmon leapt at his opponent with red energy leaving a trail behind his claw, and he struck Yaksamon’s mask, who stumbled backwards. Cutmon landed, struggling to regain his balance, only to be hit by Yaksamon’s foot. The kick sent him flying across the ring, where he crashed into the Dondokomon, who stopped drumming only long enough to push Cutmon back into the ring before resuming their drumming. Yaksamon crossed his bokuto and a shockwave blasted Cutmon to the ground. He brandished the broken one and Ferris realized that it was sharp.

_ No! _

Ferris picked up the discarded end of the bokuto, wrapping both arms around it to carry it. He clumsily ran onto the mat ignoring the protests of his friends. He spun at the waist and smacked Yaksamon’s leg. Yaksamon turned around and looked at Ferris, who suddenly realized the size and power difference between the two. 

“You can’t interfere!” Yaksamon snaps.

“You said you wanted to fight a Digidestined, this is how we fight.” 

He raised his bokuto and swung it at Ferris, who managed to dive out of the way. The weapon went up again, but this time, Cutmon was in the way. The bokuto slams into Cutmon’s crossed arms. His arms morphed again, wrapping around the weapon. Yaksamon let out a growl before he started pushing and Cutmon began sliding backwards. He raised his broken bokuto and stabbed it towards Ferris. 

A ball of light appeared, surrounding Cutmon. The light just about tripled in size before it shrank, revealing a giant bear. Or at least a creature that resembled a bear. His limbs were longer and almost humanoid, and he had sword-like blades jutting out from his back. He still had three fingers, that, rather than normal claws, were also weapon-like, the same on his feet. Ferris takes out his Digivice in time to see the red and blue colors fade, but a circle appears being projected out of the Digivice’s screen as it shows an image of the Digimon, with the text ‘Skarpurmon’ under it.

Skarpurmon roared to reveal metal teeth, which he sunk into Yaksamon’s bracers as he tried to defend himself. He recoiled from the wood and began pacing around Yaksamon on all fours. 

“You cheated.”

“I’ve never been a big fan of rules.”

Skarpurmon brought himself back onto his hind legs and thrust his arm forward. His claws dug into the edge of Yaksamon’s bracers and then he started pushing harder, burying his claws into the wood more. He seemed to have reached a point where the claws weren’t moving anymore, until a whirring sound came from Skarpurmon’s paw. Suddenly, pistons extended, pushing his claws all the way through the bracer, stopping right in front of Yaksamon’s face and just barely missing his arm. Yaksamon grunted, trying to fight back, but he couldn’t out-muscle the beast Digimon, so he tossed his broken bokuto into the air, reached to his bracer and untied its restraint. It falls off and he catches the broken bokuto before he pulls away from Skarpurmon. Skarpurmon’s claws retract and he bites the bracer to pull it off his claws. 

The blades on Skarpurmon’s back stand on end and straighten out before flying out and curving in midair to fly towards Yaksamon. He tries to block them with his bokuto, but can’t. The blades don’t hit him, though. The ones he doesn’t block fall to the ground harmlessly. Before Yaksamon can recover, he is grabbed by Skarpurmon by the neck and slammed to the ground.

The Dondokomon begin drumming faster and close in around the two Digimon.

“Yield!”

The Dondokomon are so close the two fighting Digimon can barely move now.

Yaksamon tapped Skarpurmon’s arms and he was released. The Dondokomon stopped and retreated back into the halls. Yaksamon gasps for breath and then starts laughing. 

“It’s true! Your strength truly is legendary.”

Skarpurmon degenerated.

“Take your supplies and go, and if you ever need anything, we’ll be there.” 

A Digimon who appeared to be wearing blue kendo gear ran out onto the mat and began picking up Yaksamon’s broken equipment.

“Kotemon, wait.”

The Digimon stopped and spoke in a child's voice, “Yes, Yaksamon.”

“Don’t fix those, they’re something to remember this by, I’ll fashion new ones.”

Kotemon nodded and then she scurried off.

The Digidestined left and Ferris’s shoulders were sore again, but he didn’t mind. He was just happy to have gotten their stuff back.

_ Well, Cutmon got it back. I just watched. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a longer chapter, from here on out expect a few days to have taken place between each chapter, like I said last time I won’t be specifying the date every chapter but if I can fit it into the dialogue I will. Next time we get some Digital World weirdness going on.


	9. Ruins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Digidestined come across a perfect replica of Mila's old house, well, an almost perfect replica

**Ruins**

“Ow!”

Mila's space-out time was interrupted when she heard Fennmon cry out. He was laying on the ground, sprawled in the dirt. Mila crouched to check on her partner.

“Are you okay?” She asked, concern evident in her voice.

Fennmon stood up shakily, “I’ll be alright.” His knees buckled. “I guess not. Maybe you should carry me?”

Mila sighed and scooped up the Data Digimon, holding him up to her shoulder. Fennmon wrapped himself around Mila’s neck and relaxed.

“What happened?” Mila craned her neck to make eye contact with Fennmon.

“I tripped on a giant rock.”

“I don’t see a rock,” Pawmon commented as she lowered her head to the ground.

“There was a rock,” Fennmon said dryly, “but I kicked it, so it went flying.”

“Didn’t ya say it was a giant rock?” Armadillomon tilted his head.

“I was exaggerating.”

Mila tuned out the rest of the conversation. Not intentionally, it just sort of happened. Later in the day, she was in the lead when the group crested a hill. What she saw stopped her in her tracks.

_ How? _

“-ically speaking, most of what has happened in the Digital World makes no sense. What exactly makes this place Digi-” Kalev stopped talking and walking at the same time. “What’s going on, Mila?”

“It’s my house,” Mila swallowed. “From when I lived in Jalisco.” 

“Oh,” Kalev said simply.

“You mean the one where…” Ferris didn’t finish his thought.

“Only lived in one house while I was there,” she said with a fake casual tone, swallowing a growing sense of dread. “C’mon, I’ll show you around.”

“Hey, Cody,” Ruby started. “Is this normal? I mean, for the Digital World.”

“The Digital World is filled with bizarre things, but this?” He shook his head, “This is strange, even for the Digital World.”

_ I’m not thrilled about going inside, but I need answers. _

Seeing the house brought back memories, but one above all others.

_ The table above them shook. Glasses rattled and a candle with an uneven base wobbled back and forth. The shaking grew more intense, resulting in one of the glasses falling and spilling water over the edge of the table.  _

_ “Mila?” She looked down at Hugo. They were curled up under a table in their dining room. Mila had her arms wrapped around her brother's shoulders. His head had been tucked under her chin, but he pulled back now to talk to her. _

_ Mila put a finger on her lips and shook her head, silently begging him to be quiet.  _

_ “Please,” he began again, but before he could continue, the wall burst into pieces. A green scaly head was revealed in the aftermath. Two black-and-red-striped horns with pieces of drywall on them accompanied it, but they seemed to be coming from the creature’s shoulders rather than its head.  _

_ Hugo let out a cry that Mila quickly silenced by covering his mouth with her hand. She tried to hold back her own fear, but felt her eyes welling up with tears and her breathing increasing in speed. The creature continued walking into the house, leaving a wake of destruction as it went. Its tail knocked over a tall cupboard, which crashed on top of the table. One of the table’s legs shattered into splinters, some of which found their way into Hugo’s arm. She felt him try to cry out against her hand again, but didn’t let him. The table fell, and in a moment of pure instinct she pulled herself and Hugo closer to the ground, avoiding an impact from the table. _

_ She heard gunshots, heard the creature growl, and heard more impacts against the table. Another leg broke, this one just splitting in two and bringing the table lower again. The ground rumbled again and the creature’s giant foot slammed to the ground right next to them. She felt the impact in her bones, jarring her. It roared and sprinted out of the house, causing more destruction as it went. The shaking faded and outside she heard screaming and more gunshots. There was a creaking sound, followed by a tremendous snap, a second later the table broke and a heavy, load-bearing beam of wood fell to the ground, or more accurately onto Hugo’s shin. Fortunately, its full weight didn’t land on his leg as it was partially supported by a piece of drywall, but he was still pinned. Immediately following its impact, the table fell inwards, slamming into Mila’s head. _

She’s not sure what happened after that, but she woke up in a hospital with a concussion and stitches in her hand from a sharp piece of wood she had apparently slammed her hand on when she was knocked out. Hugo was also there, a cast on his leg and bandages on his arm.

Mila shook her head dispelling the painful memory, but she was also never more sure in her decision to leave Hugo behind. They approached the building and she realized that her continued silence wasn’t helping with the casual attitude she was trying to have. 

_ I should say something. _

“So, obviously the real one wasn’t in the middle of a field, it was on a street.”

_ Something more intelligent, of course it was on a street. _

“Um, the houses next to it mostly looked the same, mostly just different colors.”

They were at the front door now, and the doormat was upside down. The part meant to grip the ground was facing up. “And, uh, the doormat was the right way.”

“I assume the door was too?” Kalev pointed out.

Mila investigated the door and found that it was on backwards. The dial to lock and unlock the door was on the outside, which meant the actual keyhole was on the inside. She unlocked the door and slowly opened.

“Wait!” Cody said too late.

Inside the house wasn’t much different. Everything was upside down, the tables lay on top of their contents, chairs balanced impossibly on their backs, their legs pointed towards the roof. There was even a light fixture attached to the ceiling by its light bulb, its cable hung towards the ground.

“Holy Twilight Zone,” Ferris exclaimed quietly.

Cody dashed in front of the door, barring the way. “Wait,” he repeated. 

“What?” Mila replied, impatiently.

“We don’t know what’s happening here.”

“And?”

“C’mon, Cody,” Ruby interjected. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

“When things like this happen in the Digital World, there’s usually a strong Digimon nearby,” Cody was clearly struggling to keep his frustration in check.

“There are five Digimon here, three of them can Digivolve,” Mila snapped, “We’ll be ready this time.”

Cody hesitated.

“This time?”

_ Crap. _

“When I lived here- ...there,” she corrected, “there was an accident. And looking back on it… it had to have been a Digimon.”

Cody seemed caught off guard and confused, “When was this?”

“Three years ago, around December, it was happening all over the world.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Why?” Fennmon asked bluntly, “Did you do it?”

“No, but we were trying to stop those Digimon,” Cody shook his head. “And we didn’t stop that one.”

Then he furrowed his brow, “Wait.”

“What’re ya thinkin’ ‘bout?” Amadillomon looked up at Cody.

“Ferris,” he said slowly.

“What?”

“I’m sorry to bring this up, but,” he took a deep breath, “how did your parents die?”

_ Why does this keep coming up? _

Ferris’s expression cracked for a second, “Excuse me?”

“I know how painful it can be. I wouldn’t be asking if it wasn’t important.”

He opened his mouth a few times before shaking his head and answering, “When the mist was around Odaiba, we hid from the ghost Digimon until the giant Digimon appeared, he destroyed part of our apartment building. They didn’t make it,” he told the story briefly and turned away from Cody, taking a shaky breath and rubbing his eyes briefly. 

“A black dinosaur-like Digimon,” Kalev said.

“What?” Cody said and everyone turned to him.

“I think I know what you’re getting at. Christmas 2002 a black obelisk appeared in Tokyo and a black dinosaur-like Digimon was there later,” Kalev explained. “Ruby?”

“I don’t get it,” she replied.

“We’ve all encountered Digimon before, have you?”

“Oh.” She bit her lip as she thought, “Yeah, I was in Kyoto for a family trip once, there were a lot there for like, an hour.”

Pyromon hummed thoughtfully, “Do you think that has something to do with why you were chosen?”

“Maybe,” Cody thought for a second. “I know the original Digidestined had all seen a Digimon battle before they were chosen.” He rubbed his chin, “My dad had a Digimon partner, and I was on a plane saved by Garudamon. Yolei saw Omnimon battle Diaboromon, Ken has an entire battle he doesn’t remember, TK and Kari were already Digidestined, and Davis was taken by the Bakemon.”

Cody was deep in thought and didn’t object when Mila stepped into the house, followed by the rest of them. 

“We should split up,” Kalev said quietly, “it makes the most sense.”

“Alright, but no one go into the basement alone,” Ferris whispered even quieter.

“Are you serious?” Ruby motioned for Pawmon to follow her.

“Yes, bad things always happen in basements.”

Mila rolled her eyes, but light amusement wormed its way into her voice, “Don’t worry, we didn’t have a basement.”

As Mila had suspected by now, everything in the house was upside down. She and Fennmon were in the kitchen, the dark colored wood cabinets rested over a light brown granite countertop. She threw open the pantry and found it empty.

_ Dang. _

“No sign o’ trouble.”

Mila jumped when Armadillomon reported his and Cody’s findings. 

“Yeah, us either,” Ruby said as she entered the room.

“Nothing,” Ferris and Cutmon came in next. “What’s that about?” Ferris jerked his chin at Ruby, who Mila now realized was scowling.

“Bathroom is upside down too. Wouldn’t have minded a shower, or to use an actual toilet.”

“I’m not sure what you expected. I found nothing, by the way,” Kalev added before continuing. “Everything else is inverted.”

“Who went in there?” Pawmon asked, twitching her tail towards a door Mila hadn’t noticed.

One she hadn’t noticed because it wasn’t supposed to be there.

Kalev notices her bewildered look first, “What is it?” He asked.

“That door isn’t supposed to be there. It’s meant to be- It’s meant to be a blank wall.”

Kalev approached it, creasing his brow, “It also appears to be the only thing in the house facing the right direction.”

“Please listen to me this time when I say-” Cody started

The door creaked open.

“...wait,” he finished, exasperated.

Behind the door was a rickety wooden staircase that led into a dark stone room with smooth walls. The room was wide and seemed perfectly rectangular, the stairs only attached to the wall on one side, looking like they were just slid into a slot and could be removed with minimal effort. A single lightbulb hung from the ceiling, casting a fleeting light across the room. The group had instinctively moved closer together so they could all see inside, and stood in silence until Ferris spoke.

“Nope!” He threw up his hands and walked away from the door, pushing his way past those standing behind him, “I can fight dragons and killer blimps, but I draw the lines at creepy basement.”

Ruby cocked an eyebrow, “Seriously? You’ve tried to get me to watch how many horror movies with you and you’re afraid of the dark?”

“I’m not afraid of the dark, I’m afraid of what creatures live in creepy basement dungeons in this world.”

“Ferris’s right,” Cody said quickly before Ruby could respond. “We should leave while we can.”

“Then go. I need to know what’s happening here.”

Fennmon shifted on Mila’s shoulders, then jumped down. Upon landing, he arched his back, “Let’s get going then.”

“But your leg-”

“Feels a lot better, let’s go.” He went down the first few stairs before turning back to face everyone else, “See? It’s fine,” then, focusing on Ferris said, “you can go last,” and under his breath added, “chicken.”

As they descended the stairs, Ferris could faintly be heard muttering, “Don’t mind if I do.”

The room was deeper than it looked. The stairs reached the far wall and turned to go halfway down another before they reached the bottom. The floor itself wasn’t as even as the walls and ceiling, it was uneven with holes and mounds of rock and dirt that made moving a hazard. The light barely reached the ground, making Pyromon the most viable light source. The glowing red energy on Cutmon made him visible, but nothing more. Everyone was quiet. Whether it was the general spookiness of the room or if Ferris’s outburst had gotten to them, Mila wasn’t sure. It felt like they were flailing in the dark for hours, although it was likely just minutes. Mila suddenly kicked something that slightly gave way. 

“Found something,” she called as quietly as she could.

Pyromon jogged across the room to where she was to provide light. On his way he passed Pawmon, who hissed.

“Stop walking past me! My eyes are never going to adjust to the lighting if you keep messing it up.”

Pyromon cast his light where Mila pointed. It was just a pile of dirt.

“No, there was something there, I know it,” Mila said to herself.

Fennmon suddenly started digging into the dirt, and shortly after, there was an ugly scraping sound. He pulled back and dusted dirt off his finding. It was a massive green and scaly object.

“What did you find?” Cody asked as he approached Mila.

“We need to leave,” Mila said, suddenly struggling to breathe, “now,”

She hooked a finger in her shirt’s collar and pulled, but it didn’t help. It felt tight. She couldn’t breathe.

Ferris threw up his hands, “Thank you!” 

Fennmon looked up at Mila, his large eyes narrowing, “What’s wrong?”

“I-it’s nothing, I just want to leave now.”

_ Can’t breathe, have to get outside. _

They left in a hurry with Mila leading the way, speed walking. Everything seemed hazy aside from her goal of getting outside and getting away. They reached the top of the staircase and she threw open the door, entering back into the house. She leaned against a wall, panting, losing focus again, hardly noticing when her friends left, but not for the usual reasons. 

“Mila, you don’t look so good,” Ruby commented

“Are you feeling alright?” Kalev asked. Or was it Cody? She couldn’t tell, couldn’t focus on the voice.

She managed to return to the moment when a yelp echoed in the basement. Her head turned and she saw that one of the stairs had disconnected from the wall and fallen to the ground, Cutmon was now hanging from the doorway into the house. The step fell down to the floor and landed with a smack. Cutmon scrambled up and sighed.

Suddenly a deep growl came from the basement, reverbing against the walls.

“I told you so!” Ferris yelled.

“Brag later,” Kalev barked. “Run first.”

Mila couldn’t run. She was transfixed, she knew those scales, she knew that roar. Suddenly she felt like nothing more than a scared child, and she felt like she was back under that table. At some point, someone must have noticed she wasn’t moving. She wasn’t sure who, but someone grabbed her arm and yelled “Mila, come on!”

The house started collapsing around her. A large tusk pierced the wall, casting a new shower of rock. The creature's head came through the wall, blinking slowly, it looked towards the sky and extended itself to its full height, shattering the roof and letting out a roar. When the roof broke, a beam of wood swung towards Cody. It was hard for anyone to process the speed of which it happened, but Armadillomon leapt in front of Cody, taking the impact full force. His shell protected him from the beam, but the impact sent him flying through the air, shattering a window and landing outside.

“Armadillomon!” Cody cried out, he started to run after his partner but stopped as a fresh rain of debris started as the Digimon stormed out of the building. 

The Digidestined huddled together in the one safe spot where the ceiling was already gone. The Digimon already had begun sniffing around the area, presumably looking for whoever woke it up. When debris stopped falling, Kalev was the first to speak.

“We need to leave. The building could be unsafe.”

“And we need to help Armadillomon.”

They left, discussing a plan, but Mila wasn’t listening. She still couldn’t breathe, she was trying to figure out what was wrong with her. 

“Mila?”

Back to reality; someone had said her name.

She looked around.

“Are you ready?” Ruby asked gently.

_ Crap. Ready for what? _

She also noticed Cody was gone, but she put that aside for the moment.

“Yeah,” she said shakily.

“Alright!” Ruby grinned, “Let’s get going, Pawmon.” She drew her Digivice and pointed it at Pawmon, who swiftly Digivolved to Clawmon.

Ferris looked at his Digivice, “He’s called Tuskmon. He can fire lances of energy from his tusk? That’s so cool,” he added the last part to himself quietly.

Cutmon smirked, “Good luck taking the brunt of the attack.” He ran around the house, in the opposite direction of Tuskmon.

Clawmon huffed, “You mean, ‘good luck with the fun part.’” Then she charged Tuskmon, letting out a roar. 

“Wait,” Mila realized too late what was happening to properly object. “We’re… We’re fighting it?” Her breath was leaving her again.

Kalev looked confused, “Of course,” he turned to Ferris. “It’s Champion level right?”

“Sure is.”

“We’ve fought Champion level Digimon before, why is this different?”

“I just don’t- I just-”

Suddenly, a lance of energy slammed into the ground, missing the Digidestined, but creating a shockwave. Everyone braced themselves against it, but Mila hit the ground on her hands and knees gasping for breath.

“Mila what’s going on?” Kalev asked, panicked. “Did it hit you?”

She shook her head, “Can’t breathe.”

“Do yo-”

“Kalev,” Ferris interrupted. “This is panic.”

He looked at Ferris, “What can we do? You’ve gone through things like this, what helps?”

Ferris shook his head, “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?” He knelt down, “Mila, how can we help?”

Ferris pulled him away. “That’s not helping,” he said harshly. “Go follow your plan, I’ll do my part,” he added more gently.

Kalev nodded and gestured for Pyromon to follow him.

Ferris sat down next to Mila, facing straight ahead. “Look, I don’t know what you need, but I have to go. Cutmon needs me to Digivolve so he can get the drop on Tuskmon. If you feel better you can come help if you want. If not, we’ll come back for you soon.” He looked at her, trying to make eye contact, but she kept looking down. “Alright, then,” he stood up, dusted himself off, and ran towards the battle.

Fennmon nuzzled Mila, getting close to her. As he did, he bumped against Mila’s pocket, knocking her Digivice to the ground. It landed screen-up, and she felt like it was staring at her, reminding her of why she was here.

She almost laughed at that, regaining her mind.

_ I don’t really know why I’m here. _

She saw her reflection in her Digivice, eyes red, gasping for breath. 

_ Why am I here? _

She looked up in time to see Skarpurmon emerge from a flash of light, immediately punching Tuskmon. The Digimon’s hand flew open, releasing Armadillomon. A ball of fire came from somewhere out of sight, presumably Pyromon, but Tuskmon seemed unaffected by it. She thought about Kalev, trying to analyze the situation and make the plan better, Cody, worrying about Armadillomon, Ruby, cheering on Clawmon, Ferris, no doubt trying to come up with a reference for the situation. 

She knew why she was there. 

She could no longer see her reflection in her Digivice. It showed a bar on the screen, above it appeared another, and then another. There was a screech and it briefly changed black and lavender before returning to its normal colors. She looked up and rose to her feet to see that Fennmon had changed.

He was much taller and muscular like a gorilla. In fact, his entire russet torso was gorilla-like. He stood on his fists and canine-like back legs. His head was also wolfish, the same orange as his body. He still had dark markings on his face and a pale, spiky mane running down his back.

His back arched and he howled into the sky, before bounding off towards the fight, letting out a prolonged war cry as he went. When he got closer, he leapt into the air, briefly silhouetted against the sun, and slammed down onto Tuskmon’s back, digging his claws into the monster’s scales and clinging there for a moment. He pulled back and began slashing ferociously into his target, throwing up clouds of data. Mila was taken aback, Fennmon was always kind of laid back, but this new form was slightly- no-  _ very _ scary.

She picked up her Digivice. She must have bumped a button, because a new display appeared projecting out of her Digivice, showing Fennmon’s new form. 

“Lupemon,” she muttered to herself. It had a Virus attribute and was a Beast Digimon.

_ Whatever that means. _

There was a ‘phoom’ and she looked back to the fight. A beam of white light pierced the sky and slammed into the side of Tuskmon’s head, sending them reeling. 

_ I should get over there. _

She ran as fast as she could towards the fight, arriving in time to see Pyromon lob another fireball, again doing nothing. Tuskmon was clearly losing, but they were still prolonging the fight, thrashing around violently tearing into any of the Digimon who got close. Skarpurmon slashed one paw at Tuskmon, who caught the attack, so Skarpurmon tried his other paw, but was again caught. They were stuck that way, neither willing to give up. Tuskmon reared back their head and bit down on Skarpurmon, entirely covering the smaller Digimon’s head, releasing a cloud of Data into the sky. Lupemon growled, and his claws flashed blue, covering them in ice, he began slashing into Tuskmon’s leg, causing the Digimon to roar in pain, releasing their prisoner, who stumbled backwards and degenerated into Cutmon.

Tuskmon then did the obvious thing, tried to stab Lupemon with their tusks, but he was ready for it. He wrapped his muscled arms around the red and black spikes and heaved, his muscles seemed to bulge as Tuskmon’s feet lifted off the ground. Lupemon hoisted them all the way above him, and back down the other side with a slam, leaving Tuskmon disoriented and on their back. Thinking fast, Lupemon released a blast of ice from his mouth, trapping the dinosaur Digimon. 

Clawmon stalked up to Lupemon and shook off some debris, showing some teeth she said, “Shall we finish this?”

Lupemon just grunted in response and climbed onto Tuskmon’s chest, at the same time Clawmon passed around Tuskmon, her yellow eyes slowly gaining a white glow. Mila’s partner entwined his fingers and raised them above his head as fists. Clawmon released her blast of energy at the sametime as Lupemon brought down his fists. Tuskmon let out one more strangled roar before exploding into a cloud of data.

Lupemon fell down through the cloud of data, degenerating into Fennmon as he landed. He shook out his fur and strolled casually over to Mila, leaving the newly degenerated Pawmon to catch her breath.

“Done crying?” He asked. The words were blunt, but there was a kindness behind them.

“Y-yeah, I feel a lot better now,” she was still caught off guard from Lupemon’s brutality.

“Good, I did all that for you, hope that helped.”

“It did.”

“Good.”

“Good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, longest chapter I think? I revealed the reason the new characters are Digidestined this chapter, and another critical piece of the story comes into play next chapter. 


	10. Arms Race

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A foe far stronger than anything the Digidestined have faced thus far peruses then while they follow a signal on Cody’s Digivice.

**Arms Race**

The Digimon was mostly black with glowing red highlights running through his body. He smiled a wide grin and was mostly humanoid, save for goat-like legs and horns. He had normal arms, but from his elbows also came insectoid limbs ending in blades. He had dark feathered wings and from the top of his back came another blade in the same style as his extra arms.

The Digivice had called him Aegiochusmon: Dark.

Ankylomon’s tail hammer swung down and was impossibly blocked by the much smaller blade on the dark Digimon’s back. Lupemon let out a blast of ice, freezing Aegiochusmon in place, leaving him exposed to Skarpurmon and Clawmon’s attacks. The blades on Skarpurmon’s back launched into a storm of danger, and Clawmon spat a blast of white energy. Aegiochusmon raised the scythes at the end of his right arm and back and batted away all the blades, simultaneously raising his arm and opening his hand to release a blast of red electricity to block Clawmon’s attack, but she didn’t let up. She continued to pump out the white energy, trying to overwhelm her enemy, but Aegiochusmon did not relent either, an eerie chuckle escaped his unmoving smile and the lightning intensified. The white energy Clawmon was firing began to get pushed back until the electricity reached her and she was launched backwards. She slammed into the ground still covered in electricity. She writhed in pain until she degenerated to the In-Training level.

_ After all this we can’t lose now. _

__ Kalev looked around desperately, Pyromon had been the first to go down when Aegiochusmon had attacked them earlier in the afternoon. He felt useless, everyone else could reach Champion level, but he couldn’t help Pyromon do it. Logically, it should have happened already, he had been in plenty of danger when Aegiochusmon attacked, but it still didn’t happen. 

_ There must be more to it than just the danger factor, I just need to figure out what it is, and why did he go for Pyromon first? _

__ Skarpurmon’s claws extended and he swiped at Aegiochusmon, but he simply broke the ice holding him and Aegiochusmon stepped out of the way. He crouched down and leapt, grabbing onto Skarpurmon and digging all of his appendages in. Data began to leak out of Skarpurmon’s chest and got sucked into Aegiochusmon.

“Hold still!” 

Kalev wasn’t sure if Ankylomon was warning Skarpurmon or taunting Aegiochusmon, but it didn’t matter. His Tail Hammer slammed into the dark Digimon and knocked him off of Skarpurmon. He immediately followed up by striking him again, leaving a crater with their attacker at the bottom.

“We won’t win this!” Cody was the voice of reason, as usual.

“We also won’t get away,” Ruby pointed out.

_ Aegiochusmon hasn’t gotten up yet. _

“Lupemon!” Kalev yelled, “Freeze the entire crater, trap him in, then we run.”

Lupemon only growled in response, releasing another blast of ice from his mouth, filling in the crater and not stopping until it overflowed. 

“Time to go!” Ferris said, already turning to leave.

They ran as fast and as far as they could. When the ice was only a faint dot in the distance, it shattered and a beam of red electricity split the sky.

“It’s going to start coming again,” Ruby warned, catching her breath.

_ It’s stronger than us, and it won’t stop chasing us. It’s a safe assumption that we will get tired faster than it will. _

“This is a no-win situation,” Kalev frowned. “At least as far as I can figure out.”

“We could hide again,” Mila pointed towards the ground. “Like with the blimp.”

“Cody?” Ferris raised his eyebrows in an unspoken question.

“It could work,” he raised his Digivice at the same time as Ankylomon degenerated, “Digi-armor Energize!”

Armadillomon Armor Digivolved to Digmon and immediately lived up to his name, burying his arm deep into the ground and digging a small tunnel. Still shoulder-deep in the ground, Digmon pivoted around the hole, carving out a larger space in the ground. He pulled his arm out and Degenerated.

“Sorry, Cody, I’ve gone and tuckered myself out.”

“Get some rest, Armadillomon. You’ve earned it.”

“Actually,” Fennmon started, pointing towards the lack of a ceiling. “I’d say he hasn’t earned it, considering the flaw in this plan.”

“Fennmon!” Mila scolded.

“What? The plan was to hide in a hole and wait for him to leave, but now we’re just waiting in a death pit.”

Kalev narrowed his eyes and wrinkled his nose, planning.

“Everyone into the hole,” he declared.

“Wha-” Fennmon’s continued scepticism was cut off.

“Armadillomon’s the same color as the ground, if we use him as a-,” he searched for the right way to describe what he had in mind. “-as a door, we can hide the entrance to the hole and wait inside.”

Without a better plan and with Aegiochusmon presumably drawing closer, the group slid into the hole. The tunnel itself was barely wide enough for them, but once they were through, they entered a large room. With all of them in, it wasn’t comfortable. They were in close quarters, but they fit in the dark cave. Armadillomon’s shell was slightly larger than the entrance, but Cody and Ruby managed to hold him up in a way that they hoped mostly blocked the hole from view. The ground shook in the rhythmic beat of running footsteps, they slowed and stopped, Kalev’s heart stopped along with them.

_ This has to work. _

__ Out of the corner of his eye, Kalev saw Ferris raise his Digivice and make eye contact with Cutmon. His gaze shifted to meet Kalev’s and arched his eyebrows in a silent question. Kalev brought his finger to his lips and shook his head. Ferris nodded, but, notably, didn’t return his Digivice to his pocket. Above them the footsteps started up again, moving away and speeding up. Kalev let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding and, a few minutes later, Ruby and Cody let their arms drop, lowering Armadillomon into the hole. 

“We need to talk about what went wrong,” Kalev started.

“Give us a second, would you?” Mila snapped.

“Yeah, man. We just got out of that,” Ruby said more softly.

So he did. They sat in the cold hole for minutes before Mila started the conversation, an apologetic tone in her voice.

“So, what went wrong?”

“Nothing went wrong,” Cody replied, his voice mostly emotionless. “Our Digimon worked together well, but sometimes there are just going to be Digimon that are stronger than ours.”

_ That makes sense. _

__ “That doesn’t make sense,” Ruby pushed out her bottom lip thoughtfully. “If they got that strong, why can’t our partners?”

Cody’s voice remained even, “One or two of them might get to a point where level stops being a problem, but for now-”

“So how do we do that?” Ferris asked, “The Digivice said he was an Ultimate Level Digimon, how do we get to that point?”

“Aren’t we getting a little ahead of ourselves?” Kalev objected before Cody could answer. “Pyromon hasn’t even Digivolved yet.”

“No, no, no, Ferris’s got a point,” Ruby let a grin spread across her face. “If we can get a Digimon partner to Ultimate…”

“Preferably me,” Fennmon also grinned.

“Why you?” Pawmon interjected, “I’d like to Digivolve again.”

There were arguments about who should be an Ultimate Digimon. Ferris and Ruby were the loudest proponents for their partners, and while Mila didn’t seem to especially care, Fennmon was also adamant that it should be him. Pyromon shrugged in a “c’est la vie” way, but he did get a few words in on why it should be him. Kalev got tired of it and stood up.

“We should move, before Aegiochusmon comes back.”

They spent the rest of the day walking. It was an uneventful trek until Cody’s Digivice beeped. On its display, it showed a dot.

“What is it?” Ruby peered over Cody’s shoulder.

“I don’t know, but in the past this has always led to something worthwhile,” he waved the Digivice around, and watched the dot move. “It must be nearby.”

As they moved closer, the Digivice would periodically beep, each time a little louder, until the dot began to move from the edge of the screen. They were still in a savanna, it was almost hard to believe that they were approaching something important when there was no sign of anything grandiose. They walked until it got dark, the dot moving closer ever so slowly. Their quiet conversations were interrupted when Ruby yelped and almost falls.

“Alright, that’s it. We should call it here, it’s too dark to keep going,” Kalev stopped walking and gestured for everyone else to do the same.

“Oh, come on,” Ferris grabbed Ruby’s arm to stop her from sitting down, “stop that!” He returned his gaze to Kalev, “I’m dying of curiosity, I won’t be able to sleep until I get answers.”

“Great,” Mila smirked, taking off her backpack. “That means you can take my watch,” she tossed her bag to Ferris, who instinctively released Ruby’s arm to catch it.

“And mine,” Ruby sighed as she was finally able to sink to the ground.

Ferris’s mouth opened a shut a few times but he never said anything. Instead, he dropped Mila’s pack and started unpacking.

“What are we having for dinner tonight?” Ruby asked once everything was set up.

Cody unzipped his bag, and looked at his food supplies, “I just have canned beans and ramen.”

“We haven’t had beans yet, we might as well have them now,” as Kalev spoke, Mila wrinkled her nose.

“Gross,” Ruby said.

“Okay, so I don’t like beans,” Ferris started, “Ruby doesn’t like beans, Mila doesn’t beans, Cody do you like beans?”

Cody shrugged, “It’s food.”

“Right, but do you like them?”

“Well, no, not especially.”

Ferris threw his hands up and yelled “Then why did we pack so many beans?”

“You should have said something at the store,” Mila reached into Cody’s bag for the beans. “No sense complaining now.”

Cody started to say something but stopped when Mila pulled her hand from his bag. She was holding the lens of a pair of round goggles. 

_ What are those? _

“Lets just eat this and,” she absent mindedly brought a can opener up to the goggles, only stopping when she looked back at her hands. “Uh, what are these?”

“I wasn’t going to say anything, I wanted to see how far you’d get,” Fennmon chuckled.

Embarrassed, Mila muttered an apology and handed them back to Cody, who protectively grabbed them back and inspected them for damage.

“So, what are they?” Cutmon asked.

“They’re goggles,” Ferris explained. “You wear them over your eyes like this,” he made circles with his fingers and brought them to his eyes, which then narrowed before he brought his hands to the top of his head. “Awh, I lost my hat,” he groaned.

Cody mostly ignored Ferris’s shenanigans and gently placed the goggles back into his bag, handing Mila the actual can of beans as he did. “It’s a long story.”

“We have time,” Kalev pointed out, curious.

“Maybe, but I think it’s best left for later.” 

“Great, another thing I’ll lose sleep over,” Ferris signed.

Cody smiled, “I guess you had better take my watch, too, then.”

Everyone laughed, but it was not lost on Kalev how quick Cody was to change to subject. He narrowed his eyes and tried to figure out what the goggles could be.

_ Or what they could represent. _

__ He had a few theories, but he filed them away for later. Despite the previous jokes, everyone did take their own watches, which seemed to relieve Ferris.

_ Guess they actually got to him. _

__ The next day was more of the same, walking through the savanna. They were running out of things to talk about after spending the last two weeks together. After an especially long period of silence, Ferris announced the date.

“July first.”

There were various acknowledgements, but it didn’t lead to a conversation. The next time someone talked, the sun had just passed its peak. Cody hadn’t looked up from his Digivice for a few hours when Armadillomon said something.

“What’s that up ahead?”

Cody looked up and the rest of the group absorbed their surroundings for the first time in hours. Ahead of them was a tower of stone. Reinvigorated by a change in scenery, the group made good time to the tower. Getting closer let Kalev see more details on the structure. It was cone-shaped, made up of spirals of brown or orange colored stone, and what seemed to be a doorway was carved into it. Cody’s Digivice let out one last shrill beep and then became silent. A second sound came in on the wind.

“Was that an echo?” Pyromon tilted his head to listen.

Kalev shaded his eyes and looked out to the horizon, where he thought the sound came from. 

_ No. _

__ In the distance, Aegiochusmon was springing towards them.

“It’s Aegiochusmon,” Kalev announced, taking a second to listen to the gasps of surprise and the groans of fear from his friends. 

“Okay, what do we do?” Ferris’s hands balled into fists.

“We  _ should  _ run,” Cody said.

“Your emphasis on ‘should’ makes me think you have something else in mind,” Kalev briefly estimated the distance between the group and Aegiochusmon.

“We’ve spent two days following my Digivice here, I have to believe that was for something.”

“Okay, so you, Armadillomon, Pyromon, and I figure out what’s going on in there,” Kalev gestured to the spire, “while everyone else buys us time.”

“Hold on, we got our tails handed to us last time. If you take Armadillomon, we’d be short handed,” Pawmon pointed out. “We’ll never win.”

“But we don’t have to win,” Ferris said thoughtfully. “If we just fight to survive we can drag on the fight long enough for them to figure out what’s going on here, and then we can escape like we did last time.”

_ He gets it. _

__ “Exactly,” Kalev breathed a sigh of relief.

“It’s a good idea.”

“Then get going!” Fennmon growled, his lips curling back to expose his teeth, “The longer you wait, the longer we have to die.”

They ran into the spire and just beyond the entrance was a spiral staircase leading down. The center of each step was rounded down and smooth, weathered by what seemed to be years of use. As they descended, Kalev’s mind raced, trying to figure out how to beat Aegiochusmon.

_ When he attacked us last time, the first thing he did was cripple Pyromon. _

__ The stairs stopped in a long hallway. They continued to run.

_ Pyromon’s the only one of the Digimon who can’t Digivolve, so taking him out first doesn’t make any sense.  _

__ They reached the end of the hallway, a dead end. The only thing in front of them was a solid slab of stone. A carving of sorts was on it, a rhombus with a downturned crescent above it. Kalev stopped to catch his breath, but Cody approached the wall, extending his hand to it.

Kalev swore he heard a quiet voice coming from the wall.

“Hold on to your optimism, your dreams, and especially your friends, Cody.”

“Optimism,” Cody whispered quietly.

A crack formed in the wall, and the symbol began to glow yellow, the wall crumbled and a small, glowing, yellow trapezoid slowly lowered itself from the air, floating into Cody’s hand. 

_ Pyromon couldn’t even hurt Tuskmon, why would an Ultimate level Digimon be worried about dealing with fire balls that wouldn’t do anything to it? _

__ Cody stared at his hand, and the object stopped glowing.

_ Unless… _

Cody shook himself from his trance, “Time to go.”

_...it’s the fire he’s worried about. _

They sprinted back, exiting the cave to see Skarpurmon and Lupemon keeping their distance, while Clawmon ran circles around Aegiochusmon, occasionally jumping closer to strike him.

“Pyromon, aim for the grass in front of Aegiochusmon,” Kalev ordered.

Pyromon didn’t hesitate, he leapt forward and threw a fireball into the dry grass, instantly igniting it. Aegiochusmon, who had been about to attack, stumbled backwards and screamed. Despite his constant smile, the dark Digimon’s eyes were fearful.

_ I knew it. _

Pyromon clearly noticed, too, and kept lobbing fireballs, growing the fire, all the while Aegiochusmon back peddling and occasionally making swipes at the fire in a vain attempt to extinguish it. Pyromon began advancing forward, heating himself up so that every step charred the ground.

_ Yes, Digivolve! _

Aegiochusmon let out one last shriek before he ran back the way he came, stumbling occasionally in desperation. Pyromon turned back to the group, stepping out of the fire, cooling down as not to grow it. Lupemon roared, releasing a torrent of ice and snow, extinguishing the flames. Kalev shoved down his disappointment that Pyromon didn’t Digivolve.

“You did it!” He exclaimed.

“It was your idea,” Pyromon replied cheerfully.

“So what was down there?” Ruby practically ran over to Cody.

“A crest,” he raised his hand, and between his fingers was a yellow trapezoid, it seemed to be made of crystal and had the same symbol from the cave wall carved on it.

Mila spun her hands around each other, in a gesture to continue, “Which is…?”

“The Digidestined team before mine used them to help their partners Digivolve to Ultimate.”

Kalev's heart sank, he didn’t mind being the last one in the group to have his partner Digivolve, but if the others were already beginning to reach Ultimate Level…

“Sweet!” Ruby slapped Cody on the back, causing him to stumble forward, “We might finally be able to beat Aegiochusmon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I ended up splitting this into two chapters. In my original outline it was two chapters, but when I was trimming down the story I combined them, that was a mistake, this chapter is already long, and it was way too long with the rest. Also we are now ⅙ of the way through the story.

**Author's Note:**

> This is definitely the longest chapter I’ve published so far, the next chapter is also mostly an action scene, but both of these set up important details for the rest of the story, even if they don't include the main cast. Also a bit of an explanation as to how I’m writing this. I have outlined all sixty chapters of this story and am writing several chapters in advance to publish on a weekly basis while I hopefully write enough in the time of publishing to keep up the schedule, currently I have twelve chapters with a thirteenth well on the way. Expect another chapter in a week.


End file.
